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AMERICAN 



ENCYCLOPAEDIA 



OF 



BIOGRAPHY 



■3 



IIIGHTSTOWN, N.J. 
METROPOLITAN PUBLISHING AND ENGRAVING CO. 

18U3. 




COPYRIGHT, 1893: 
H. CLAY WILLIAMS. 



6* 



PREFACE. 



"The ancient Egyptians had a law," says the biographer of Lord Bacon, "which 
ordained that actions and characters of the dead should be solemnly canvassed before 
certain judges, in order to regulate what was due to their memory. No quality, however 
exalted, no abilities, however eminent, could exempt the possessors from this last impartial 
trial. To ingenuous minds this was a powerful incentive in the pursuit of virtue, and a 
strong restraint on the most abandoned in their career of vice. Whoever undertakes to 
write the life of a person deserving to be remembered by posterity, ought to look upon this 
law as prescribed to him." 

The value of biography ami the teachings of history depends upon the faithfulness with 
which they are written. All truths are so many lessons. They make the light of the moral 
world. This ancient law of Egypt would not be out of place in modern times. Not only 
for the dead, but for the living. The prevailing idea that truthful records of the dead should 
not be made, if defects of character or errors of mind are to be given, is a grave misappre- 
hension of duty. It is to be brave before God and cowardly before man 

The growing practice of publishing biographies of living men is to be commended on 
the same principle that we commend acts of the wealthy, who make their surplus property 
useful before their death. The judgment that acquires property should execute its own will, 
and shape its own beneficence. When possible, the events, experience and opinions ot one 
whose record is worthy of a public notice, should be supervised by the living original. 
Individuality would be better preserved in its independence, and a proper self-respect would 
be more likely to lay its foundation in solid acts of duty. The eulogistic exaggerations and 
omissions of truth that find apology in death, would be less likely to find a public record. 

In a notice of a distinguished person, a recent writer aptly says : — 

"What photography is to the human countenance, biography is to the soul. I he one, 
with the marvelous pen of light, sketches the outward features of our physical being; the 
other, traces the progressive developments of mind from infancy to manhood, and demon 
strates that the diversity of character in individuals is as limitless in society as the varying 
physiognomy of man is marked in the races." 

No modern achievements of art have been so universally welcomed by all classes of 
people as those of photography. This is natural, and it displays a gratifying feature of 
humanity. It illustrates the pleasures of memory, and the sacred associations ot the soul in 
its activity, in all the beautiful relations of friendship, love, kindred and parental affection. 



4 PREFACE. 

All alike take pleasure in looking upon the face of the absent, <>r deceased beloved one, or 
of the admired and respected person, who has made for himself, or herself, a record of 
public honor and usefulness, or has been the instrument ol good, charity and happiness in 
the domestic or social circle. Although the portrait is a counterfeit, it is the nearest approach 
to the reality that artistic skill can give. If it be so prized for what it represents, why should 
we omit the record of character that commands our respect, or endears the person repre- 
sented? The record illustrates the beauties ot character which afford us pleasure to remem 
her, and profit to contemplate. There is no personal merit in the features, or complexion of 
the face, nor in the form of the body. They come from nature, wherein the laws of God 
give birth to physical perfection, and to forms of beauty. But, in the formation of character, 
the faculties of the human soul are placed in the countless relations ot skill, taste, judgment 
and duty. The high prerogatives ot religion and government, the sacred privileges and 
enjoyments of civil, social and domestic lite, are to be carefully studied, observed and 
practiced. As we are true to these perpetual duties and responsibilities, principles are 
developed which constitute the elements of character, ami these are to be found in the 
examples of men who have made themselves a record that will be useful to a grateful posterity. 

As it has been truly said by a distinguished orator, that man is "simply a trustee of 
property, that he is the owner ot nothing, not even of himself," so it may be asserted with 
truth, that all human beings, however great, humble, or insignificant in the eyes of mortals, 
have a mission to fulfill in the life that has been given them by their Creator. They make a 
pari of the universe, and if they are not made known by any visible record here, no one will 
presume to question the Infinite Wisdom by denying them a record wherein all will luul a 
place in eternity. 

It is forcibly stated by Aristotle, "that there are minds which are proportioned to great 
matters, and others to small ; that there are minds proportioned to intend many matters, and 
others to lew ; that some minds are proportioned to that which may be dispatched at once, or 
within a short time ; and others to that which begins afar off, and is to be won with length of 
pursuit." Men are to be classified according to their capacities, motives and deeds. 

Great men, like common men, are divided into classes. Each class has its own peculiar 
scale of genius and merit, and although all may be upon the same line of pursuit, they are 
not all actuated by the same motives. Some seek wealth, but with narrow views ot its uses. 
Sonic seek influence, but with mean motives of application. Some seek adventure-, for 
notoriety, but with no distinct plans of practical utility. Some distinguish themselves by the 
boldest activity, braving dangers and mastering difficulties, spending wealth and achieving 
grand results for the world, but with no apparent consciousness how others will profit by their 
sacrifices. They are great in the persistent exercise of a passion in one pursuit, but they 
seem to be ignorant of the object and mission of their greatness. This may be developed, 
demonstrated, ami realized by other minds, and not unfrequently in another generation. 



PREFACE. 5 

There is another class, endowed with large perceptive and reflective faculties, ant] high moral 
sentiments, who seem to comprehend at once all that is practical, useful and beautiful in duty. 
science and progress, and who are always ready to learn of what they are ignorant, to teach 
what they know, and to practice what they profess. In the record of this class we find 
examples worthy to be studied, remembered and followed. 

To question the utility of the biography of living men, is to doubt the profit to be found 
in experience, and to prefer the uncertainties of ignorance and imperfect recollections to the 
certainties of personal knowledge. All men alike are liable to imputations of weakness and 
vanity, but the acknowledgment of this common truth does not excuse the neglect of the 
grave duties and responsibilities of opportunity and individuality. True modesty seldom 
assumes to stand above the dignity of truth, and inordinate self-conceit is always best under- 
stood when permitted to publish its own record. 

The annals of our Republic are ample and faithfully given by her able and distinguished 
historians. In this volume will be found the records, though incomplete, of some of her sons, 
and whatever has been achieved by any or all of them that is useful and honorable, we doubt 
not will be appreciated by the student of history and the lovers of truth and good example. 

The creditable activity of our Historic and Genealogical Societies has done much to 
create a taste for, and to demonstrate the importance of, genealogical statistics. When 
considered in relation to its incpiiries and in the application of their results, genealogy has 
become a science, and it is to be hoped that the time is not far distant when all who have families 
will regard it a duty, as well as a pleasure, to communicate such information as will encourage 
and facilitate the commendable objects of such associations. 




tyLt 6L. (J. CT^-C^J— <^A-^-^u. 






AMERICAN ENCYCLOPEDIA 
OF BIOGRAPHY. 



BRELINGHUYSEN, FREDERICK T., LL. D., late Secretary of State in President 
Arthur's Cabinet, and who is the subject of this sketch, was born in the village of 
Millstone, in the county of Somerset, in the State of New Jersey, on the 4th day 
of August, 181 7. Born in the lineage of a highly-honored ancestry, which, 
through several generations, was distinguished for piety, eloquence and patriotism, he 
inherited a name which was of more value than wealth, and which secured to him special 
advantages in commencing life. 

He was a descendant, in a direct line, from the Rev. Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen, 
who was born in Holland and there educated and ordained to the ministry in the Reformed 
Dutch Church, and who, in the year 1720, emigrated to America in obedience to a call sent 
from the Dutch churches of this country to the Classis of Amsterdam. He was a pioneer 
preacher of the Gospel, occupying almost the entire county of Somerset with parts of 
Middlesex and Hunterdon as the field of his missionary labors. He was laborious, devoted 
and successful. His watchword, found inscribed upon a small collection of his sermons 
printed in 1733, was "Landem uon quero ; Culpam non iimeo" — "I seek not praise; I fear 
not blame." Dominie Frelinghuysen, in a successful ministry for more than a quarter of a 
century, stamped his impress upon the Holland inhabitants of Somerset county, then in a 
formative state as to the type of their religious faith and character, which is traceable down 
the generations of that people to the present day. 

The freedom of religion which was guaranteed to the Provinces of New Jersey by the 
" Grants and Concessions " of the Duke of York, was somewhat impaired by the subsequent 
instructions of Lord Cornbury under Queen Anne, favorable to the Church of England ; yet 
Dominie Frelinghuysen never surrendered an iota of the Reformed Dutch faith or polity, 
nothing daunted by the Colonial Courts or Magistracy. It is no wonder that the name of 
Frelinghuysen is precious in those churches to-day. He had hve sons ordained in the 
ministry, and two daughters who married ministers. His second son, the Rev. John Freling 
huysen, who also had been educated and ordained in Holland, entered upon the labors of his 



8 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

father in 1750, with his residence in Somerville, where he gathered around him a preparatory 
and divinity school, which was a nucleus oi a college, and from which was evolved, through 
one oi his pupils, the Rev. Dr. Hardenburg, Queen's College, now Rutgers, of which Dr. 
Hardenburg was the first President. 

'1 his Mr. Frelinghuysen was a man ol brilliant gifts, and a popular and successful 
preacher. He died suddenly in 1754, leaving a wife, who was the daughter ol a wealthy ami 
distinguished East India merchant, residing at Amsterdam, and was named Dinah Van Berg. 
She was a very remarkable and highly-gifted Christian woman, ami who, afterwards, became 
the wife of the Rev. Dr. Hardenburg, and was known in all the Dutch churches in Holland 
and America. 

The son of the Rev. |ohn Frelinghuysen and Dinah Van Berg, his wife, was General 
Frederick Frelinghuysen, of Revolutionary fame, who was born in Somerville, April [3, 1753. 
He is the central representative Frelinghuysen in the direct line from the first ancestor in this 
country to the subject of this memorial. He was the grandson ol the pioneer missionary and 
the grandfather of the late Secretary Frelinghuysen, and was settled at Millstone, in Somerset 
county. He was graduated at Princeton, in the class of 1770, and was a fellow-student of 
President James Madison and President S. Stanhope Smith. He was admitted to the bar of 
New fersey, became a member of the Provincial Congress of New Jersey and of the Com- 
mittee of Safety, and was a member of the Continental Congress at different times. He was 
Captain of a Corps of Artillery in the Revolutionary War and took part in the battles of 
Trenton and of Monmouth. He was afterward made Major-General of the militia in the 
Whiskey Rebellion, and he was a member of the United States Senate from New Jersey from 
1793 to 1796. He died in 1804 highly eulogized. He left three sons, lawyers, and men 
of eminent public distinction and reputation, viz.: General John Frelinghuysen, Theodore 
Frelinghuysen, and Frederick Frelinghuysen, all natives of Somerset county. 

General John Frelinghuysen was a graduate of Queen's College, was frequently a 
member of the State Council under the old Constitution, popular in politics, military in his 
tastes. 

Theodore Frelinghuysen, the second son, was the uncle and adopted father of the dis- 
tinguished Secretary. lb- graduated at Princeton. His name was enshrined in the popular 
heart. He was the Christian's model man, an eloquent Senator, an eminent jurist, a patriotic 
statesman, and, in his later years, an educator of young men in college. At the time of his 
death he was President of Rutgers College. He was revered for his greatness and goodness 
combined. Such was the man who adopted the three-year-old boy, of whom wc are soon to speak. 

Frederick Frelinghuysen, the youngest of the three sons of General Frederick Freling- 
huysen, and the lather of the late Secretary, was born in Millstone, November 7, 17SS; was 
educated at Princeton, admitted to the bar, settled at Millstone where he was rapidly acquir- 
ing a lucrative practice and a brilliant reputation, and is remembered as a natural orator, 



OF BIOGRAPHY 9 

with a fervid imagination and a cheerful, buoyant temperament, and possessing great power 
over juries. He died suddenly in the year 1S20, leaving surviving him his young widow, who 
was a daughter of Peter B. Dumont, Esq., who owned a valuable plantation on the south 
bank of the Raritan, near Somerville ; and also leaving three daughters and two sons, the 
younger son being the subject of this paper. 

Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, the late Secretary, was only three years old when his father 
died, and immediately thereafter he was adopted by his uncle Theodore and taken to live 
with him at Newark. Though he had lost his father he inherited his father's natural gifts, his 
eloquent speech and his fervid emotions. He also partook of the refinement and comeliness 
of his mother, whose heart was ever filled with ambitious aspirations for the honorable career 
of her son. The loss of his father could not have been more fully compensated than it was, 
by transferring the care and custody of the little boy to the guardianship of his distinguished 
uncle, who, having no children of his own, lavished upon him all the means that could be 
employed in his training and culture. 

His preparatory education was obtained in the Academy at Newark, except while his 
uncle was in the Senate at Washington, absent from his home ; and at such times lie was 
with his mother and attended the Academy at Somerville, under Mr. Walsh. 

He entered Rutgers College as sophomore, and graduated in the class of 1836. 
After his graduation in college he entered at once upon the study of law in the office of his 
uncle Theodore, at Newark. It was a special privilege to sit at the feet of such a jurist, and 
to receive the important lessons of professional life from such a model instructor. After 
three years of study he was admitted to the bar as attorney in 1839 ; and three years later 
he was admitted as counsellor. Before entering far upon his professional career he wisely 
halted to attend to two of the most important and influential events in his history, viz. : 1. 
His covenant with God in a public profession of his religious faith. 2. His marriage. 

His ecclesiastical relations were formed with the Reformed Dutch Church, the church 
of his ancestors. His domestic relation, by marriage, was a union with Miss Matilda E 
Griswold, an accomplished daughter of George Griswold, a wealthy and respectable merchant 
of New York. From this time the heart of Mr. Frelinghuysen gravitated towards tin; church 
and the home. Religion and family were the sources of his chief joy and comfort to the 
day of his death. 

And now as we behold him stepping out into the world to maintain the prestige of his 
family name, and, if possible, to raise higher the fair fame of his ancestors in the tour gener- 
ations that had preceded him, we may note, as we follow him. the guiding hand of a benig- 
riant Providence, which held him all tin' way through his life, and also to observe his own 
personal efforts in climbing the ascent of an honorable ambition. 

In proceeding to speak of him we may safely adopt the language which he himself employed 
in the Senate of the United States, in announcing the death of Governor Buckingham, a 



io ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

Senator from Connecticut, of whom he said : " In speaking ol him we need not resort to 
any studied phraseology, from the tear that a freedom ol expression might unwittingly 
uncover characteristic faults, lmt 1 offend no one who hears me by saying that it his excel- 
lence has not been readily recognized, it is because ol a moral vision too defective to 

discern a portraiture of 'many virtues." 

Mr. Frelinghuysen stood on high vantage ground at the very start of his professional 
career in Newark. In the office and library of his uncle, to which the old clients of the 
elder Frelinghuysen were accustomed to resort for professional services, now that he hail 
Income Chancellor of the University of New York, and removed from Newark, the young 
attorney was welcomed as the representative successor of the venerable jurist ami senator, 
who had been loved and revered for so many years ; and he received the sympathy and 
support of the business 'men — the merchants and manufacturers of Newark A host of 
influential friends gathered around him. The religious classes cherished an affection for his 
name ; and the Newark bar took him into their special favor, while the whole community 
bestowed their blandishments and good will upon him. The warm helping hand of such 
men as Chief Justice Hornblower, Asa Whitehead, Elias Van Arsdalen, Governor Penning- 
ton, |ohn P. Jackson, Oliver S. Halsted, with many other leading lawyers in other com- 
munities, was readily extended to him, and he did not have to struggle and wait long for 
success, as most young lawyers are compelled to do. 

He was soon appointed City Attorney, which office brought him in contact with the 
industrial classes, and gave him a general interest in the government and business of the city. 

His election as member of the City Council is said to have been the only occasion on 
which he had submitted his name to the suffrages of his fellow-citizens. 

Mr. Frelinghuysen early became the retained counsel of the New Jersey Central Railroad 
Company and of the Morris Canal and Banking Company. This was a fine field for developing 
and exhibiting his legal capabilities. He was required to appear before courts and juries 
in different counties, in hotly contested suits at law, and meeting, as his antagonists, the 
strongest counsel in the State and from abroad ; and this class of business also called him to 
the highest courts of the State ; and in a few years he stood in the foremost rank of the New 
Jersey bar. He became noted for his eloquent speeches before juries, and for his strong- 
personal influence both in and out of court, which insured him success in his profession. Nor 
did he rely upon his influence, or his genius, but he studied and toiled with unwearied diligence. 
He was not only an eloquent advocate, capable of swaying juries, but he was an able lawyer, 
preparing and conducting most important causes with strategic skill and eminent success. 
He was a formidable antagonist in any cause, civil or criminal, and his practice became 
lucrative and enviable. 

Patriotism was a strong virtue in Mr. Frelinghuysen' s nature. He came to it by 
inheritance; and though he did not seek office through tin- suffrages of the people, he kept 



OF BIOGRAPHY. n 

well read in the politics of the State and country. He was frequently called to address large 
political gatherings. As far back as 1840 he was, by invitation, one of the public speakers at 
a Whig State Convention at Trenton, in the presidential campaign of that memorable year. 

It was not unnatural, nor surprising, that Mr. Frelinghuysen, who had acquired so much 
distinction in the legal profession, and who was encompassed by so great a cloud of witnesses 
keeping vigils over the destiny of his honored family name, should have some ambition to 
follow the same path to honor and office which his ancestors had trodden and therein had 
won their laurels. Though it is said that Theodore Frelinghuysen had never sought any of 
the official honors that were conferred upon him, it will hardly be denied that in these later 
years of our Republic, the spectacle of conferring unsolicited offices and honors is extremely 
rare. 

In 1 86 1 Attorney-General Dayton was nominated by President Lincoln Minister to 
France, and thereupon the Attorney-Generalship of New Jersey became vacant, and the power 
of nominating a successor devolved upon Governor Olden, and Mr. Frelinghuysen was among 
the number of those who desired the appointment. 

Both Governor Olden and Mr. Frelinghuysen had been members of the Peace Congress 
which met at Washington in 1861, to avert the threatened rebellion, by a compromise between 
the North and South. Governor Olden, who had hardly known Mr. Frelinghuysen personally 
before that time, but had known his uncle, was quite captivated by the patriotic eloquence ot 
tin: young Jerseyman as exhibited in that Congress. The object of that Congress having 
failed, they both returned home warm personal friends, and both became thorough Republicans 
and were no longer old-line Whigs. They became convinced in the Peace Congress ot the 
inexorable necessity of an uncompromising war. Governor Olden nominated Mr. Freling- 
huysen Attorney-General in place of Mr. Dayton, which he gladly accepted. 

Again in 1866, when the term of the office of Attorney-General expired, Marcus L. Ward, 
was Governor, and he renominated Mr. Frelinghuysen for a new term in that office. He 
tilled this office with eminent ability. The legislation of the war period demanded of him 
much special labor ami attention in his official assistance in that legislation. During that 
Stormy period, he spent the most ot" his time in Trenton in discharging the duties ot his office, 
bravely sustaining the Governor in defending the Union, besides being the law adviser ol 
the State, it was his duty, also, to assist the Prosecutors of the Pleas ot the several counties 
in trials for high felonies, and in several important and difficult trials for murder his services 
were characterized by great skill and powerful oratory. 

Nor should it be overlooked, that Mr. Frelinghuysen had become the most popular 
political speaker in the State. He was well read in the history and politics of the country, 
and he could electrify the masses of men, when he appeared before them. The period ot the 
war was an educational period, and he. like many other speakers and writers, applied his 
mind to comprehend the principles of civil government, and to solve those hard problems 



12 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

that rose out of the attempted secession of States, and the rights ol freedmen. It was a school 
for making statesmen, and no one learned more rapidly and thoroughly than Attorney 
( ieneral Frelinghuysen. 

The death of William Wright, of Newark, a United States Senator from New Jersey, in 
1866, left a vacancy in that office to be filled ; and such was the condition of the country that 
it was deemed important to fill the vacancy before the next meeting of the Legislature, and it 
devolved upon Governor Ward to make the nomination. No aspirant to that place stood so 
near the Governor as Attorney-General Frelinghuysen ; and being well assured oi his eminent 
qualifications, Governor Ward appointed him as successor to Senator Wright. Mr. Freling- 
huysen accepted the appointment, and took his seat in the Senate in December, 1866, and he 
was elected l>v the Legislature in the winter of 1867 to fill the unexpired term of Mr. Wright, 
which would end March 4, 1869. Mr. Frelinghuysen resigned the Attorney-Generalship and 
accepted the Senatorship with great pleasure. It has been said that a seat in the United 
States Senate had been the goal of his ambition from his youth. 

It happened that when his term expired in 1869 the Legislature of New Jersey was 
I )emocratic, and Mr. Frelinghuysen was not re-elected. But he had taken such high rank in 
the Senate, and had been such an able and eloquent supporter of President Grant's adminis- 
tration, that in 1870 he was nominated by President Grant, and was confirmed by the Senate, 
as Minister to England. There are various conjectures why he declined so honorable a 
position, which the; most ambitious public men fondly covet. It is not improbable that he 
wanted to regain his place in the Senate, and he believed that by remaining at home and 
watching- the drift of thing's in the State and in the country he might the better attain his 
object. And so it was, for in 1871 there was a vacancy in the Senate to be filled for a full 
term, and the Republicans held a majority in the Legislature. On this occasion the public 
eye was directed towards Mr. Frelinghuysen, the tried and eloquent statesman, whose spot- 
less character and elegant accomplishments, and whose public services rendered to his party 
and his country for more than a score of years, on the rostrum and in the high places of the 
State and the Nation, and who had only served an unexpired term in the Senate, suggested 
his name as the first and almost unanimous choice of the Republican party to represent the 
State in the Senate. 

As bearing upon the ambitious views of Mr. Frelinghuysen at that time, when he was 
receiving the congratulations of Chancellor Runyon, it was stated by the Chancellor at the 
meeting of the Newark bar, on the announcement of the death of the late Secretary, that 
Mr. Frelinghuysen replied to the congratulatory words of the Chancellor thus: "I think the 
highest ambition of every man should be, not to attain a lofty station, but to be a useful man 
in the community in which he lives." 

These words, spoken undoubtedly with sincerity, were not inconsistent with the high 
official career of his life, nor with his personal aspirations. For whether In- meant to express 



OF BIOGRAPHY. , 3 

his own personal experience, or only his conviction of what ought to be the highest ambition 
of every man, he took that broad view of usefulness in a community which would subordinate 
to that object all the power and influence of exalted station, tor we know that his elevation 
to high position never diminished but rather increased his usefulness in the community. 

It was in the Senate that Mr. Frelinghuysen added the choicest laurels to his fair lame. 
The Senate Chamber was a place well adapted to his taste and qualifications, fie seems to 
have been born a Senator as some men are born poets and painters. He was versed in the 
science of law and civil government. He possessed the oratorical graces, with a keen and 
skillful dialectic power in debate, and a fine, superbly fine, presence and dignity of action. 
Conscious of his integrity he was nerved with indomitable courage, blended with a faultless 
Christian courtesy. Now add to these his inborn patriotism, his loyalty to the Union, and his 
ancestral prestige, and the country had in him an assured pledge of a lofty Senatorial career. 

And having taken his seat how readily he glided into the honors and graces of the 
Senate; and he became very soon a prominent and leading member of that august body. 
He was there during the reconstruction period, when every phase of legislation for the 
restoration of the Union and for securing to the freedmen civil rights under constitutional 
amendments, besides that kindred legislation in matters of taxation, finance, public debt, war 
claims and pensions, recpiired the profoundest statesmanship; for it was bringing order out 
chaos. The Senator who would patiently and conscientiously wade through the daily labors 
ol Congressional duty during those years, had anything but a lazy and luxurious life of it. 
Mr. Frelinghuysen, standing shoulder to shoulder with the leading members of the Senate, 
shrank from no labor or responsibility in shaping the policy of the Government, and in efforts 
to restore the unity and vigor of the Nation. He was a member of the Senate from 1866 to 
1869, and then again from 1871 to 1877, about nine years. 

In the multitude of daily discussions and impromptu debates in the Senate on vital 
questions, we read with wonder at the readiness and ripeness of Senator Frelinghuysen in 
every exigency. He was a diligent, assiduous thinker, ever watchful and ever ready to 
grapple every new and important question that arose. It gave pride to [erseymen to read 
how admirably and honorably their Senator always acquitted himself when he spoke, and 
what attention and respect he commanded from the ablest members of tin- Senate Me fell 
the responsibility for every opinion expressed and every vote given. 

As a member of the Judiciary Committee, the Finance Committee, the Committee on 
Naval Affairs, the Committee on Claims, and on Railroads, and as Chairman of the 
Committee on Agriculture, he was charged with a varied and often perplexing responsibility. 
He fully understood and represented the interests of his constituents at home, and the 
manufacturers of the State, in his advocacy of the tariff ami protection. 

When Mr. Frelinghuysen first took his seal in the Senate, the war had ended and 
Andrew Johnson was acting as President in place- of President Lincoln, deceased. The 



i 4 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

difficulty in restoring the Union was aggravated by his extreme severity, at first denouncing 

the leaders ot the Rebellion, and then by a sudden change in an opposite direction, by 
abandoning the Republican party and its temperate policy. His official conduct became so 
factious and hurtful to the peace of the country that loyal men began to fear a reign of 
anarchy, and that nothing short of the impeachment of the President would restore the reign 
ol law and order, and Congress immediately presented articles ol impeachment against 
President Johnson. It became the duty of Senator Frelinghuysen to take part in the trial 
of that impeachment, and though he had hardly been in his seat a year, he met that 
unpleasant duty fearlessly and with signal ability. His judicial opinion, filed and published 
in the public record of that court, was brief, but clear and convincing. He voted for 
conviction on several but not on all of the specific charges. A majority of the Senators 
voted for conviction, but there was lacking a two-thirds vote and the President was not 
legally convicted. 

He took a prominent part in the debate on the Washington Treaty, and also in the 
French Arms controversy ; and he raised his voice emphatically against polygamy as 
engrafted upon the body politic of Utah. In a clear and manly speech he explained and 
cleared up the policy of New Jersey in graduating taxes upon railroads according to the 
number of passengers carried across the State, and therein he rescued the State from the 
obloquy and misrepresentations of her defamers. 

Senator Frelinghuysen labored persistently to secure a return to Japan of the balance of 
the Indemnity Fund that was not used or required for the payment of American claims 
against that Government. This was plainly the just and honorable thing to do, and yet it 
involved a long struggle to obtain in the Senate the requisite vote. The success of this 
measure was due to his efforts. 

He introduced the bill to restore a gold currency, and he took charge of Mr. Sumner's 
bill for reconstruction after the Massachusetts Senator became unable to look alter it ; and 
he took an active part in the incipient steps for an electoral commission to count the electoral 
vote of the year 1876, and he was a member of that board or court. 

Without stopping to notice many of the usual questions which called lor the action of the 
Senate, in which Senator Frelinghuysen took a prominent part, we ask attention to a few of 
the more exciting national discussions which grew out of the late war, and in which he 
rendered eminent service- and made a brilliant record for himself and for his State. 

He rendered an important service to his country in opposing and defeating a bill before 
the Senate which was in a fair way of becoming a law, granting relief to a loyal lady of 
Alabama, whose house was destroyed by General Sherman, in order to erect a fortification 
during the war. He interposed an objection that this nation was not under a legal obligation 
to pay, as a debt, that which by the law of nations is no debt, and he insisted that whatever 
might be the extent of the bounty of the country towards Southern loyalists, claims ol the class 



OF BIOGRAPHY, 



15 



in controversy were not a matter of debt After discussing the law of nations bearing on the 
subject, Mr. Frelinghuysen closed his speech in these words: — 

"The Senator from Wisconsin has painted the horrors of this war at the South, but have 
its effects been less fearful at the North? What Northern ln-art lias not bled? Has the South 
in their plea any claim on the tax-paying North? Is the Southern loyalist to be indemnified 
for the horrors of this war, while the expenditures, the blood and the tears of the North are 
to be unrequited ? Let us be contented to suffer the consequences to fall where they have 
been directed to fall. We cannot adjust them." 

The bill was defeated, and thereby the country was saved a precedent for innumerable 
claims of that character, which the National Treasury could not have paid. 

On the Supplementary Reconstruction Bill in 1S6S, Senator Frelinghuysen spoke with 
much force and eloquence. All efforts to establish a more lenient and unobjectionable policy 
for the restoration of the States had been obstructed by President Johnson, and by tin- 
Southern people themselves. As one after another of the varied measures proffered by 
Congress for the re-organization of the disorganized States had been rejected, it seemed to 
become absolutely necessary to choose between a military government on the one hand, and 
the clothing ot the freedmen with power to organize the State Governments by enfranchising 
them on the other hand. 

It did not seem statesmanlike, in the judgment of the calm observer out of Congress, 
to endow the whole class of freedmen with full citizenship and suffrage, without qualification 
or restriction. The policy of the old Romans in according to their freedmen tin- rights 
of citizenship by installments, as it were, that is, conferring at first the right to testify 
as witnesses, then the right of marriage, then the right ot property, but withholding the 
jus suffragii, and the jus honoris, for a few years, until they should have- Income the 
better fitted for full citizenship, with the right to vote and hold office, seemed fraught with 
more political wisdom than the immediate and absolute enfranchisement of the degraded 
race. 

But such gradual enfranchisement, after the Roman law, was too slow to meet tin- crisis 
then at hand. The State governments had to be reorganized. The white citizen refused to 
effect such a reorganization without failing to recognize the rights guaranteed to the freed- 
men by the constitutional amendments. It thus became necessary, in the opinion of 
Congress, that the freedmen should be enabled to vote, and to be voted tor, ami have lull 
citizenship conferred upon them, that they might aid in reorganizing the State governments; 
and this measure was adopted as a political necessity. The political excitement in the 
country, at that time, was very high, and the wisdom of Congress was severely tested in 
their action on this bill. 

Senator Frelinghuysen, who was always conservative and cautious, and whose con 
Stituency was of that character, hail now become as radical as any of the Republican 



i6 ENCYCLOPAEDIA ' 

Senators. Replying to the declaration of Senator Doolittle, of Wisconsin, " that a war of 
ra< es was impending at the South," Mr. Frelinghuysen said : — 

" Does tlie Senator not know that this prophecy, made in this council chamber going to 
the whole nation, renders possible, probable, and even to be expected, the very event that 
In predicts? Does he not know that he is thus frescoing the Southern skies with scenes oi 
massacre, which by being gazed at, fire their passions, until it breaks forth in a devouring 
flame ? And is this distinguished Senator entirely sure that he is not deluding as heretofore 
done, as well as encouraging them, when he tells the South that not even military force could 
send white men there to put down any such outbreak ? 1 believe, 1 trust, that no such 
calamity as that he predicts will befall this nation, but should it come, let us tell the Senator, 
that from the hills of New England, from the shops and fields of the Middle States, and 
from the fertile plains of the West, would go forth thousands and hundreds of thousands, 
prepared to show the world that in this land, 

" The Sovereign law, the States collected will, 
Sits Empress, crowning what is good, repressing what is ill." 

"It is the emergencies and the exigencies of this country that prove that not in station or 
in Senatorial robes, but in the humble walks of life, are found our greatest men, our truest 
patriots." 

And while touching upon the "sovereignty" of tin: Nation, in the same speech, he 
continued : — 

"It may be said that it makes no difference whether the power which the States possess 
are termed sovereignty, or whether you call them constitutional rights. It does make a vast 
difference. The correlation of sovereignty is allegiance. And it is just the heresy of 
allegiance to State sovereignty that has made this land to (low with blood, and which, to-day, 
calls forth the unbidden sigh from the patriot lather's heart, has sent desolation to all the 
households of this country, and has cast upon us a crushing debt, which by honest toil at 
loom and anvil, and in the held, is yet to be paid. 

"I read the other day a published letter to General Scott, from the wile ot a distinguished 
rebel General, in which she said: 'My dear husband sheds tears of blood over this terrible 
war, but what else could a man, and a Virginian, do?' And in the ballad sung by the scions 
of the best families of the neighboring State, beginning, 'Maryland! My Maryland!' is 
contained the sentiment that has made many of the young men ot that State tarnish lor life 
their honor ami their fair name by rushing into the rebel ranks." 

In discussing the policy as well as the constitutionality of the reconstruction laws, he 
said : — 

"Sir! the policy of the reconstruction acts is simply to have a loyal constituency. : - : * 
The question, however, which fact, event and history force upon us, is, whether it is better 
for this Nation, in violation of its cardinal principles that the governed shall have a voice in 



OF BIOGRAPHY. , 7 

the laws that govern them, to deprive a population more numerous than were the inhabitants 
of this country at the Revolution, who have fought our battles and helped pay taxes, of all 
political right and self-protection, and render them a poor, oppressed, ignorant race, festering 
and throbbing with degradation; or is it better, now when we have an opportunity we shall 
never have again, to give them those political rights, which experience has proven have 
elevated all who ever possessed them? On that question, whatever may be the answer of 
an unhallowed prejudice, when I remember that it effects millions, who will live and die when 
I am mouldering in the grave, I have no hesitation as to what shall be my answer. We are 
bound now to do justice to that race." 

One more brief extract from his Senatorial speeches will be sufficient to show his 
advanced position among our Republican statesmen. In 1875, when speaking upon a 
resolution of Carl Schurz on the suppressed rights of self-government in Louisiana, denying 
to freedmen their right to vote, Senator Frelinghuysen said: — 

"The people of our country have inscribed on their Constitution three principles — 
universal freedom, universal suffrage, and universal citizenship ; and there they are. They 
are the trophies of the war. To purchase them, 300,000 young men, as good as any of us, 
lie to-day cold and stark in death Time has brought its alleviations, but to-day thousands 
of hearts are shrouded in sorrow. We Senators at yonder rostrum have assumed the solemn 
obligation to do all we can to maintain and enforce in letter and in spirit those three great 
amendments of the Constitution. Has it been done? Is it being done? Is there a citizen 
of the North who would to-day be willing to live under such citizenship as the colored people 
of the South are subjected to ? A distinguished Senator said the other day that we should 
conciliate the South. Let us say to the Senators of the Southern States that I remember we 
have a common ancestry, and, in a manner, a common history, and I hope a common destiny ; 
and that they made a great mistake and have been disappointed, and that while I am glad 
that they were, my American manhood forbids that I should exult over their disappointment. 
But, sir, let me say that lam opposed to any system called 'conciliation,' because that is 
not to their advantage, or to the interest of the country. What we all want ami must have 
is a government of law and equal citizenship everywhere. 'Conciliation !' No, Mr. President; 
that administration of affairs which depends upon the will of the governed and not on the 
will of the governing power is not government. We want no jelly-fish system that rests on 
conciliation. We want a government of bone and vertebrae, which does not 'bear the sword 
in vain ;' which is a 'terror to evil doers.' Let it be the same in every section." 

Here our glimpses of Mr. Frelinghuysen in the Senate must end. His term expired 
March 4. 1S77, when the Democratic party, being again in power in the State, elected Mr. 
McPherson as his successor. 

Mr. Frelinghuysen kept pace with the advance of" public sentiment, though like many 
others he was obliged to depart far from his original conservatism. But he never became 

2 



,8 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

estranged from his party, nor yet compromised his independence. He never tailed in duty. 
Nothing in his life or services ever called for an apology. He never gave a vote nor uttered 
a sentence which impaired the lustre of his reputation, and it was highly complimentary to him 
that the most intimate and confidential friendship, both personal and political, existed between 
him and General Grant from his entrance into the Senate to the close of their joint lives. And 
the same could be said of his relation to Senators Sumner, Edmunds, Conkling, Hoar and 
other leading statesmen. 

But Mr. Frelinghuysen was not left long unemployed in the public service of his country. 
After the tragic death of President Garfield he was invited to take the first place in President 
Arthur's Cabinet as Secretary of State. Mr. Arthur had assumed the Presidency under 
embarrassing circumstances. His own party was irritated and distracted, and but little public 
sympathy was at first extended to him. It would have been difficult for him to place at his 
right hand a Secretary whose education in political science and international law, and whose 
experience at the bar and in the Senate, united with exalted character, so thoroughly qualified 
him for that high position as Mr. Frelinghuysen possessed. Nor is it possible to state how 
much the excellent administration of President Arthur owed to the presence and counsel of 
Mr. Frelinghuysen in the Cabinet. It may be that too much was accorded to that influence 
by those who did not fully appreciate the President's patriotism and ability. 

Mr. Frelinghuysen was wise enough to understand that in matters of diplomacy there is 
a proper medium between too much and too little strategy ; and he possessed moral courage 
and virtue enough to defend the honor and welfare of his country, though in doing so he 
should be required to disregard popular clamor and to sacrifice his own personal ambition. 
Hence the foreign policy of the Administration was pacific and honorable under his guidance. 
In his foregn ami international correspondence he was firm but conciliatory, never indulging 
in threats and undignified bluster. He was ever mindful that it was the interest of all nations 
to promote friendly relations with one another. 

The negotiating of international treaties, both in the general scope and in the details of 
the subject matter, anticipating contingencies which are liable to arise in the far distant future, 
and adjusting conflicting interests which may effect the industries, the revenues and the 
commerce of nations, requires not only considerate foresight, but profound statesmanship in 
those who draft them, and Secretary Frelinghuysen sustained in this line of labor and 
responsibility the heaviest burdens of his life. 

The Spanish treaty, as it was called, which President Arthur submitted to the Senate for 
ratification near the close of his official term, cost the Secretary the most laborious and 
exhaustive labor in its general provisions and its specific details, all of which he had matured, 
or thought he had matured, and was able to defend ; but it was surreptitiously given by the 
press to the public before it had been discussed by the Senate in secret session, and its merits 
presented to the public by that body ; and under hasty assaults of the press and the clamor 



OF BIOGRAPHY. IQ 

of a small class of manufacturers who were affected by it, and when it was so near the end 
of the session that due action could not be had upon it, it was not ratified. 

And so, too, the great treaty involving the building of the Nicaragua Canal, which was 
in like manner submitted by the President to the Senate at the close of the term, had caused 
Secretary Frelinghuysen the most intense stud)- and the most painful anxiety. The project 
of an interoceanic canal was not original with the late administration. It had for main- 
years been an object of desire by the commercial world, and of jealous treaty manipulations 
between England and the United States. 

But Mr. Frelinghuysen surprised our country and all the other great nations, by sub- 
mitting through the President this elaborate treaty, which only needed the assent of the 
Senate to assure the consummation of that great work — a treaty which required the Govern- 
ment of the United States to construct the canal across the Isthmus in a new and better 
route, through purchased land, and to become the owner of the work, but opening it 
to the commerce of all nations upon equal and reasonable tolls. 

It was received with a considerable degree of favor, but it claimed debate and delibera- 
tion in the Senate and by the country. Objections were raised : ist. To the magnitude of 
the cost of the work. 2d. To its supposed infraction of the time honored policy of avoiding 
entangling alliances with foreign nations, by its guaranty of defence of the little foreign 
territory, through which the canal was to run, in case of invasion. 3d. To the supposed 
violation of our treaty obligations with England, in not having first given notice of the 
abrogation of such existing treaty bearing on the subject of such canal. 

The vast importance and value of such a gigantic enterprise, in the interests of the 
commerce of the world, would, undoubtedly, have overruled the cost, as a plea in bar of its 
construction. 

As to the objection of departing from the policy of avoiding entangling alliances, it 
cannot be believed that this policy would be contravened, in the opinion of all nations, 
including our own, by procuring this great public highway, from ocean to ocean, which is 
pre eminently commercial, rather than political or military in its character and design, and is 
equally favorable to all nations. The incidental guaranty of defensive aid to the little strip 
of national territory through which the canal is to be run, in case of a foreign invasion, 
which might endanger the security of this great work, is too insignificant an alliance to cause 
entanglement; and that common-law maxim, " de minimis non curat lex" would be 
recognized as a maxim of international law, and applied to this case. 

As to the third objection — want of notice to England — there was serious ground for 
hesitation on this account. It was, perhaps, the only ground which some of our most eminent 
statesmen regarded as grave, if not vital. 

Mr. Frelinghuysen had well considered this point in the case, and he thought the way 
clear of difficulty ; and the popular sentiment of our country was in sympathy with his views. 



20 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

He regarded the clause, in the existing treaty with England, touching the subject of a canal 
across the Isthmus, as abrogated by its violation on the part of that government ; and there 
fore that no notice was required. 

But though the giving such notice might possibly have thwarted the execution ot this 
great treaty for the canal, it might well be questioned whether, without such notice, the honor 
and good faith of our nation might not have been compromised, ami our friendly relations 
with England disturbed through what might be characterized as diplomatic statecraft. 

Whether this great American project has failed of success, through a change of adminis- 
tration, or through some other cause, the preparation anil procurement of this international 
document will ever remain a monument of Secretary Frelinghuy sen's industry, skill and 
statesmanship, alike creditable to himself and to the Department of State. 

Mr. Frelinghuysen, while in the Senate, and, also, as head of the Department of the 
State, was singularly unassuming in the distribution of governmental patronage. Unlike 
most members of Congress ami Cabinet officials, who usually claim a full share in dividing 
the "loaves and fishes," among their personal friends and partisans, he was charged with 
indifference to this incident of office. The scramble for the "spoils" was distasteful to him, 
and to take any hand in apportioning them was repugnant to his better instincts ; and this 
should not be charged to a cold and selfish nature. 

It is pleasant to be able to state that Secretary Frelinghuysen, and his accomplished 
family, handsomely represented our country in extending the appropriate courtesies 
and hospitalities to foreign ministers, distinguished strangers, and the whole diplomatic 
corps. 

This was done with a liberality and an elegance, and yet with a simplicity which 
commanded the admiration of all who were present at his state dinners and public receptions 
at Washington. 

It was not that he was fond of scenes of gayety and festivities that he did this, for 
he was overburdened with his official labors which claimed his constant attention and severest 
study ; but he felt the obligation which society, at the capital of the nation, demanded of him 
in his high official station. These courtesies were gracefully recognized by members of the 
diplomatic corps in grateful expressions of their sympathy in his last sickness, and by their 
attendance at his funeral. 

In this review of the public life of Mr. Frelinghuysen at the bar, in the Senate and in the 
Cabinet, we see nothing that we cannot admire. 

Mr. Frelinghuysen placed a high estimate upon the claims ami duties invoked 
in the higher politics. He had learned to regard Christian statesmanship as the most 
honorable and most noble of human pursuits — the broadest and most influential of all occu- 
pations for promoting the welfare of mankind. The great aims of his life were lofty ami 
philanthropic. 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 2l 

"The piercing eye, the quick enlightened soul, 
The graceful ease, the flowing tongue of Greece, 
Joined to the virtues and force of Rome, 

All his parts, 
His virtues all collected, sought the good 
Of human kind." 

As in public, so in private life, he was a model man. In his happy home when the 
affections of his family entwined around him like the fragrant laurel, and also in his church, 
where he was a pillar, he performed his vows with supreme delight. On the platform of 
religious associations, and Sunday-school and Bible society anniversaries, he was, from early 
manhood, a very popular and eloquent speaker. At the time of his death he was the 
President of the American Bible Society. 

The religious element in Mr. Frelinghuysen's character was positive, and of a high type. 
It seems to have become the warp and woof of his nature. A close student of the Bible, he 
adhered, with repose, to the orthodox faith of his fathers. He was free from cant and 
hypocrisy, and was cheerful and bouyant in spirit. He was never tempted through a morbid 
sentiment to abjure the practice of law, and to withdraw from politics and public service, as 
though such pursuits were incompatible with a devout, religious life. He never felt it 
necessary to apologize anywhere for his religious sentiments or his Christian conduct. lie 
held his head high, as if conscious of a divine nature implanted within him. This was his 
appearance in the trial of a cause, in making a political speech, and in discussing great 
questions in the Senate. He was a rare instance among our distinguished public men, in 
whom the ornamentation of Christian character is found blended, beautifully, with a strono- 
and gifted manhood. 

It was on the 4th day of March, 1885, upon the inauguration of an new administration, 
that Mr. Frelinghuysen surrendered his seat in the Cabinet to his distinguished successor, 
Secretary Bayard. Laden with honors, he carried with him the gratitude of his countrymen 
for his distinguished services. His uniformly good health and habits had led his friends, 
outside of his family, to hope that he would live to enjoy another decade of active life ; but 
that hope soon vanished. The removal of his public official burdens only revealed his bodily 
waste ami weakness. He went from the Cabinet to his dying bed in this, the city of his home. 
He had longed to reach his summer residence on the banks of the Raritan — the old plan 
tation of his maternal grandfather, amidst the associations of his ancestors. Hut this was not 
to be so. He was too ill to receive the congratulations and welcome of his fellow citizens, 
who had thronged his home to greet his return. I [e was compelled to succumb to the fiat of 
nature. The sweet music of his voice was hushed, and his once eloquent tongue could now 
hardly whisper his wants into the ear of his loving family, who watched day and night over 
his couch. Day after da)-, for many weeks, expressions of sympathy and anxiety were 



22 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

telegraphed from admiring friends throughout the country, and the metropolitan press 
continued, by hourly bulletins, to announce the reports of his attending physicians. 

He died on the 20th day of May, 1885, sixty-eight years of age. He did not descend, as 
the setting sun, into the twilight of evening, but he departed apparently at midday, when the 
manliest acts of his life were illuminating his skies with meridian splendor. He left his wife 
and their three sons and three daughters surviving him. 

Public expressions of sorrow and sympathy were numerous and eulogistic. Governor 
Abbett in his proclamation said of him : — 

" Descended from an ancestry honorably associated with the civil and military history of 
the country he has, by a distinguished and useful life, given additional lustre and reputation 
to the historic name he bore." 

His obsequies from the North Reformed Church, in Newark, were attended by the 
prominent men of the State, officials and private citizens. A vast assemblage of great and 
good men and women mourned his death with sincere grief. After the religious services in 
the church were ended, in the silence of the city with its flags drooping in sympathy with a city 
in mourning, his mortal remains were solemnly carried by honorable men to the tomb prepared 
for him in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery. 

What more fitting words can be engraved upon the marble of his sepulchre than those 
which were recorded in memoriam of his grandfather, General Frederick Frelinghuysen, 
eighty-two years ago ? 

"Eloquent at the bar ; wise in the Senate; * candid, generous and just. He left 

his children a rich legacy of a life unsullied by a stain and adorned by numerous expressions 
of public usefulness and private beneficence." 







m 




<£? ^^^cj^^^^ct^ 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 23 



KENT, EDWARD, LL. D., of Bangor, Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of 
Maine. Born in Concord, New Hampshire, January 8, 1802. He was the sixth 
child and the youngest son of William Austen Kent, a native of Charlestown, 
Massachusetts, who had settled in Concord. His mother was a native of Sterling, 
Massachusetts, and sister of Prentiss Mellen, the first Chief Justice of the State of Maine. 
The entire family of Mr. Kent consisted of four sons and four daughters, of whom the 
majority attained social position and distinction. 

Edward Kent, after the usual elementary and academic education, matriculated at 
Harvard College, mastered the usual curriculum of studies, and graduated therefrom in 1821, 
at the age of nineteen. Among his classmates were Ralph Waldo Emerson, the unique 
philosopher ; Josiah Ouincy, afterward Mayor of Boston ; Robert Barnwell, President of 
South Carolina College ; Charles W. Upham, Member of Congress ; and Judge Edward G. 
Loring. Electing the legal profession, he qualified himself for its practice by comprehensive- 
study under Benjamin Orr, one of the most eminent lawyers of Maine, and under the tuition 
of Chancellor Kent, the most distinguished legist and legal commentator in the United 
States. 

Looking around for a suitable place in which to establish himself, in 1824 he visited Bangor, 
then a thriving town of twenty-five hundred inhabitants. In September, 1825, he opened a 
law-office in that promising centre, and became the seventh lawyer in the locality. His fine 
personal appearance and affable, manners won him many friends. Intellectual pursuits 
connected with the law especially attracted him. The routine drudgery of the profession was 
irksome, and he sought relief in writing political articles for the press and in the discussion of 
political questions. The discussions of the local debating society, of which he was an active 
member, touched the core as well as the aesthetics of political ethics. " Whether it is com- 
mendable in a candidate for office to be active in promoting his own election " was at one 
time the subject of debate. His own subsequent life, not less than his position in the debate, 
gave a negative answer to the question. Admitted to practice in the Supreme Judicial Court 
in 1827, after having complied with the rules of the Court by two years practice in the 
Court of Common Pleas, he was appointed the same year, by the Governor of the State, 
Chief Justice of the Court of Sessions. This office he held from April, 1827, to the end of 
the December Term in 1828. About this time he entered into copartnership with Jonathan 
P. Rogers, a distinguished member of the bar, and then officiating Attorney-General of the 
State. This connection lasted two or three years. 

In 1831 a business connection was formed with Jonas Cutting, afterward a Justice of 
the Supreme Court, under the title of Kent & Cutting. This association continuing for about 
eighteen years. The stable and growing popularity <>f Mr. Kent was manifest in his repeated 



24 KXCYCLOPjEDIA 

election to fill town offices — Moderator at public meetings, Town Agent, member of School 
Committee of Superintendence for succeeding years, and Representative to the Legislature 
from the Bangor District in 182S and 1829. At the age of twenty-six, when he entered the 
Legislature, he quickly made a State reputation for himself by resisting the incorporation of 
Argyle as a town, and its annexation to the Bangor District, on the ground that it was owned 
by Waterville College, and that it contained only two freeholders ; that a majority of the 
inhabitants remonstrated against incorporation because it would subject them to ruinous 
taxation, and that the constitution prohibited the alteration of the established representation 
until the next general apportionment. This position the Supreme Court subsequently 
sustained. In the summer of 1829 the selection of Mr. Kent was preferred for the orator ol 
the Fourth of July, that a partisan celebration might be avoided. It is recorded that he was 
listened to " with gratified attention," the oration being "a chaste and eloquent production, 
breathing the sentiments of enlightened patriotism, unsullied by the bitterness of party-spirit, 
and worthy of the day." In 1836, Mr. Kent was chosen Mayor of the City of Bangor, and 
the following year was again elected by an increased majority. In this office he gave great 
satisfaction, and received the ready support of those citizens whose names were identified 
with the objects of education and good morals. His second inaugural gratified the friends of 
temperance by the following language : — 

"The subject of pauperism leads to the consideration of its prolific source — intemperance. 
As a municipal corporation we are interested in this subject, for our burdens and taxes are 
swelled by the crime and misery attendant upon this destroyer of human life and human 
happiness. As the constituted guardians of the public weal, it is our duty to do what we can 
to restrain its ravages. I trust that the resolution adopted by the Board of last year will be 
adhered to, and that no legalized and licensed drinking will be found in our limits In my 
view, the sanction or influence of legal authority should never be given to a traffic which fills our 
jails with criminals, our almshouses with paupers, and our whole land with want and misery." 
In 1836, Mayor Kent was nominated by the Whigs for the chief magistracy of the State. 
Rejected at the polls — for the Whig party, to which he belonged, was in a minority — he was 
again nominated in [S3 7, and elected. His election was a great shock to the leaders of the 
Democratic party. Maine had for many years been a Democratic State. They resorted to 
all kinds of partisan tactics to prevent his inauguration. They made war upon the returns 
from several towns with the design of invalidating them. The conflict ended finally by 
referring the matter to the Supreme Court, which sustained the position of the Whigs, and 
declared Edward Kent elected Governor by a majority of the votes. On the 19th of 
January, 1838, he was inaugurated. His message was one of intrinsic importance. He 
excused the suspension of specie payments in consequence of the pressure of the times, but 
urged resumption at the earliest possible day. He insisted that the Northeastern Boundary- 
line should be run as authorized by Congress, and that the General Government should 



OF BIOGR.ir//). ..- 

extricate the State from all the perplexities that the dangerous dispute about limits had created. 
At the opening of the next session of the Legislature he presented a detailed statement of 
the measures he had taken to settle all difficulties. In the two following years occurred the 
"Aroostook War," which brought the controversy to a crisis. In 1840 he was again a 
candidate for the Governorship, but there was no election by the people. Out of the four 
highest candidates the House sent the names of John Fairfield and Edward Kent to the 
Senate. The latter body, being largely composed of Whigs, elected Mr. Kent by a two thirds 
majority. He held the office during 1841. 

"No portion of the public life of Governor Kent," said Ex-Governor Washburn of Maine, 
in a letter to a friend of Judge Kent, "able and honorable as it was, better illustrated his 
ability, firmness, and patriotism than that which was connected with the exciting and important 
question of the Northeastern Boundary. He understood it as few men in the State, and none 
out of it, did ; and under his administration more was accomplished in the way of bringing it 
to the earnest attention of the General Government and of the nation at large than had been 
effected for many years. Among the results of this action, the War Department took the 
matter in hand in earnest, and ordered a reconnaissance to be made to ascertain the military 
features and resources of the State, and to perfect a plan for its defense, by the establishment 
of military posts and communications, arsenals, depots of arms, etc. As Governor Kent said 
in a message to the Legislature, " the question was rescued from the deathlike torpor in which 
it had so long rested ; a new impulse was given to the cause ; for the first time the whole 
subject was made the formation of a Congressional report, and enlisted in investigation and 
debate the talents and eloquence of some of our ablest statesman. * * It was assumed and 
treated as a National matter, which involved the vital interests of one member of the 
confederacy and the plighted faith and constitutional obligations of the Union to make the 
controversy its own." A commission was also appointed by the Governor, under the authority 
of the Legislature, to ascertain and run the boundary-line, by whose report the entire 
practicability of the line as claimed by the State of Maine, and its consistency with the terms 
of the Treaty of 1783, were established beyond question. "I confess," said the Governor in 
one of his messages, "that my convictions are strong that Maine has been wronged by a 
foreign Government and neglected by her own, ami I do not understand the diplomatic art of 
softening the expression of unpalatable truths." In 1842 the discussion of this topic led to a 
convention letween the British Minister, Lord Ashburton, and Daniel Webster, the American 
Secretary of State under President Tyler. Mr. Kent was appointed a commissioner by the 
Legislature to confer with the Secretary in regard to the interests of Maine. In the 
negotiation he urged the maintenance of the territorial integrity of the State, but without 



success 



The surrender of a portion of this territory in the settlement, against his protests, 



was the occasion of much feeling in the State. 



26 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

Governor Kent resumed the practice of his profession in connection with Mr. Cutting at 
Bangor, continuing in it until his appointment to the American Consulate at Rio Janeiro, by 
President Taylor, in 1849. The duties of this office were performed with his wonted skill and 
efficiency for four years, at the end of which time he was relieved by President Pierce. 
Returning to Bangor, he recommenced practice, associated his brother George with himself, 
and thus continued until the year of 1859, when he was appointed by Governor Lot M. Morrill 
to a seat upon the bench of the Supreme Court. His former law-partner, Cutting, appointed 
in 1854, was among his associates. Judge Kent was reappointed in 1866 by Governor Cony, 
and held the office until 1873. He was in the full vigor of his powers when his term expired, 
and in the opinion of many ought to have been reappointed, but he made it a matter of no 
personal interest. His ability was unquestioned, and the performance of his judicial duties 
eminently satisfactory. After leaving the bench, Judge Kent traveled for twelve months in 
Europe, accompanied by his family. He visited Great Britain and the Continent, and was 
particularly interested in Italy and Greece. The tour was one of great pleasure and 
satisfaction. 

In 1874 he once more returned to professional duty at Bangor, and was engaged in 
several important cases during the three remaining years of his life. The last public position 
held by him was [vide Collections of the Maine Historical Society, vol. viii., p. 460) that of 
President of the Convention for the Amendment of the Constitution of the State, in 1875. 
The same authority adds, "At the time of his death he was a member of the Maine Historical 
Society, to which he was elected in 1831." 

Judge Kent was twice married. His first wife was Sarah, daughter of Nathaniel Johnston, 
Esq., of Hillsborough, New Hampshire, who died in 1853. Of their children, Charlotte 
married an English gentleman in Rio, and died there of yellow-fever. James died in Rio, also 
of the fever. Kitty returned with her parents to the United States, and survived her mother 
four years. Mr. Kent was overwhelmed with grief by his successive afflictions. But neither 
his philosophy nor his faith succumbed to them, though to those most intimately associated 
with him in after-years it was apparent that "the world unseen was very real to him." His 
chief happiness had been in domestic ties and the friendships that clustered about his life. 
His subsequent marriage occurred in 1855 to Miss Abby Anne Rockwood, daughter of Rev. 
Otis Rockwood, of Lynn, Massachusetts. Their only son and child, bears his father's name, 
and was graduated from Harvard University in 18S3, and subsequently from the law school of 
Columbia College. He was admitted to the bar in New York City, where he is now engaged 
in the practise of his profession and promises well to sustain his father's reputation. 

After a very short period of apparent illness, Judge Kent's death occurred on the 19th of 
May, 1877. The members of the Penobscot County bar paid sincerely eulogistic respect to 
his memory. Their utterances are recorded in vol. lxvi of the Maine Reports. A. W. Paine, 
Esq., who presented the resolutions, made the following observations : — 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 27 

" As a politician, though firm and decided in his preferences, he knew no party prejudices : 
no man was his enemy or even undervalued because of them ; and on the other hand, none 
lost confidence in him because of any difference of political creed or party alliance. As in all 
other departments of life, so in politics, people gave him credit for honesty and trusted him 
accordingly. In religious matters he was deeply imbued with the doctrines of liberal Christi- 
anity, in the best meaning of the term — free from all sectarianism. He respected all religious 
creeds and convictions in others, when seen to be honestly entertained and carried into life ; 
but no man more thoroughly despised all cant, hypocrisy and bigotry. He held that faith 
alone had no saving efficacy, except as its genuineness was supported by the evidence of good 
works. 

"As a lawyer, he was kind, affable, faithful and reliable. * * :|: 

"As a judge, Mr. Kent was by general consent regarded as signally fitted to the place. 
By nature he was eminently endowed with the personal qualifications which the place demands. 
Of commanding form, his very presence inspired respect, his habits of life seconded the 
impression, and his calm and deliberate manner fitted him for a patient hearer. Well read in 
the profession, familiar with the principles of the law and with the authorities, he added to all 
these traits a warm devotion for the place, an integrity which knew no faltering, and a rigid 
impartiality. To these he united a bland and winning dignity, free from all superciliousness, 
which commanded the acquiescence and confidence of every one." 

"As a jurist," said Chief Justice Appleton, "his written judgments will ever command 
the respect of the profession ; while respecting authority, he respected more the great principles 
on which authority rests. His mind was singularly free from bias and prejudice. His great 
purpose was to apply rightly legal principles to existent facts. He spared neither time nor 
labor in his legal investigations. He discussed legal questions with a clearness of illustration, 
a strength of argument, a fullness and variety of learning rarely equalled and still more rarely 
surpassed. Occasionally he was fond of enlivening the somewhat arid discussions of legal 
principles with flashes of wit and humor, in which his genial nature so much delighted. 

"In social life he was eminently popular. Cheerful and happy himself, he radiated 
happiness upon those around him. Calmly, with no disturbing fear, with his intellectual vigor 
neither dimmed by age nor weakened by disease, trusting in the loving kindness of God, he 
met the fate predestined from the beginning for us all ; and we cannot doubt that to him there 
was the joyful greeting, 'well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over 
a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things : enter thou into the joys of thy Lord.' ' 

No truer tribute could be paid to the memory of Edward Kent than that he paid to Judge 
Cutting, his long-time associate, in the following words (vide Maine Reports, vol. Ixv. p. 
600) : — 

"There is one word that better than any other characterizes the man, the magistrate and 
the lawyer — integrity ! I do not say honesty, for that word to most minds carries only the 



28 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

idea of pecuniary faithfulness, the performance of contracts and the fulfillment of express 
obligations. Integrity covers and includes the whole man — his heart, his intellect, his judgment, 
his ruling motives and his controlling principles. * * * This integrity was in his nature, 
and it always seemed to me that he not only acted uprightly, but that he never debated 
with himself when, if ever, a slight deviation promised ample and tempting remuneration. This 
inwoven integrity, resting never on the selfish and narrow maxim that ' honesty is the best 
policy,' but on the pure sense of duty and justice and absolute right, was ever with him 
through his long life of work and responsibilities ; and when at last the summons came that 
called him away from earth, its cares and duties and trials, he went calmly to his grave without 
a stain upon his honor and without a cloud upon his reputation." 

"In estimating aright the character of Judge Kent," wrote one who knew him intimately 
all his life, "certain salient points should not be overlooked. The most prominent of these 
traits were the openness of his nature, the amenity and kindness of his disposition from his 
youth up, and his capacity for and appreciation ol wit and humor. It may be truly said, 
without detracting from the weightier points of his character, that he was not only witty 
himself, but the cause of wit in others. It was perhaps humor rather than wit that he 
indulged in himself and appreciated the most in others — humor of a chastened kind, rather than 
that boisterous wit which would ' set the table in a roar.' A quaint conceit or happy turn of 
expression, a play upon words or verbal pun, would go farther with him, dwell in his memory 
longer, and be recalled with more satisfactory enjoyment than the ribald jest or the coarse 
and vulgar anecdote." 

The same friend continues : — 

" If the life of Judge Kent was marked by any one distinctive trait above his other 
estimable qualities, it was that of perfect integrity ot heart anil life. To do wrong to 
another in thought, word, or deed would have been to have wronged the deeper his own 
soul. To be and not to seem was eminently characteristic of him — and to have lived the life 
of one not open as the da)- would have been abhorrent to his very nature." 

Among many personal recollections of the subject of this sketch, the following from the 
lion, (ieorge F. Talbot, given at Portland at a meeting of the Maine Historical Society, in 
May, i S79, will be read with interest: — 

"I first became personally acquainted with fudge Kent when, soon after his appointment 
to the bench, he came to hold a term of the Supreme Court at Machias, where I resided. He 
brought with him to the judicial office a considerable prestige, gained in a very successful 
political career. He was the only candidate of the Whigs who had been able to break the 
ascendancy the Democrats had held in Maine since 1830. Once in 1837, and again in 1840, 
he had been elected Governor. In the famous campaign of the latter year — famous for the 
wild and somewhat fantastic popular enthusiasm that accompanied it, and whose memory is 
perpetuated in song better fitted to inspire a mass-meeting gathered about a stump, or for the 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 

march of a torchlight procession, than tor volumes to ornament a centre-table — fudge Kent 
found a conspicuous place along with 'Tippecanoe and Tyler, too.' 

"When he came to Washington county, under these circumstances, he was everywhere 
warmly welcomed. In no country is the judicial office more honored than in New England. 
People flocked to the court-house, who had heard of him as a popular chief magistrate and 
an eminent lawyer, to look upon his imposing figure and handsome, majestic face. At that 
time his resemblance to the best portraits of Washington was very generally remarked. The 
citizens vied with each other in extending toward him their courtesies and hospitalities. At a 
private house one evening tableaux vivants were improvised for the entertainment of the 
company. Judge Kent, whose fine powers of conversation, ready wit, copious repertory of 
anecdotes made him everywhere, out of, as well as in, the State, a most desirable table 
companion, entered genially into the amusement. He consented to sit behind a large picture 
frame draped in fine lace, as a portrait of the Father of his Country, and the resemblance, 
patent to the casual observer, was brought out with marked effect through the adjuncts of 
scenery, drapery and light. 

"The only other time that I came personally in association with him was when, full of 
years and honors, retired from the bench, he came to Augusta as one of the commissioners to 
consider and recommend amendments to the State Constitution. His associates gladly availed 
themselves of his political and judicial experience, and while he presided over their councils, 
they felt that his presence gave dignity to their assembly and weight to their recommendations. 
While he was ready to acquiesce in all proposed changes that would give strength and 
symmetry to the constitution, he shrunk with a conservative feeling, due alike to his age and 
his political training, from every innovation that threatened to disturb existing institutions, or 
to weaken the sanctions of established usages, and that popular loyalty that, among law-abiding 
races like the English and Americans, clings to the wonted methods of administration and 
long-established magistracies. I think that this was the last of his public services, and closed 
a career as full of service to the State as honor to himself; and when soon after he passed 
away from among the living, he left a reputation for integrity, amiability, and public usefulness 
which it is the duty as well as the pleasure of this Society to commemorate and perpetuate in 
history." 

At the above meeting of the Historical Society. ex-Governor Washburn presented the 
memoir of Judge Kent prepared by I Ion. John E. Godfrey, of Bangor, and added his own 
tribute, which is so characteristic in its earnest, affectionate, and exalted appreciation of his 
friend, to the many that were called forth by his death, that it is appended in closing this 
extended sketch : — 

"In submitting to the Society for Judge Godfrey this interesting paper. I am unwilling to 
forego the opportunity to add a word of my own in the memory of an old, a valued, and a very 
dear friend. It was my privilege to enjoy the friendship of Judge Kent from a period as early 



3 o ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

as 1835 to the time of his death ; and such were the force and dignity of his character, the 
evenness of his temper, his uniform charity for others, the purity of his life, and the delightful- 
ness of his discourse, that my respect and regard for him were never, that I can remember, 
abated for a single moment. If he had limitations or faults, tht-y were so purely human, so 
inherent in the best types of manhood, that one could scarcely notice them without thinking 
the more poorly of himself for doing so. If it should be thought that our friend has dwelt at 
unnecessary length on the love of humor in Judge Kent, those who knew the latter best will 
understand how much the sketch would have wanted in completeness if it had said less on this 
characteristic of the subject of his notice. In the unflagging good-nature of Judge Kent, in 
his broad sympathies, in his wit, overborne only by a humor as genial and unaffected as that 
of Thomas Hood or Charles Lamb, there was a perennial charm. What Hood said of Allan 
Cunningham might with equal truth have been applied to him — 'he would rise to a joke like 
a trout to a fly.' 

"There were at the Penobscot bar, during the mature years of Judge Kent, two 
gentlemen in whose society he found unfailing pleasure. The) were like him in liberal culture, 
in love of anecdote and facetict, and in wearing always and without abuse the 'grand old 
name of gentleman.' I refer to Thornton Mclan, a friend of Daniel Webster, and a prized 
companion of Louis Gaylord Clarke, to whose Knickei bocker Magazine he contributed, in 
its best days, many of the rare things which appeared in the editor's inimitable gossip ; and to 
Llijah L. Hamlin, the soul of truth and honor, and the humanest of men, in whose memory 
was garnered up tales and humors of his native county (Oxford), of its original and eccentric 
characters at the most picturesque period of its history, which never flagged, and to the listener 
never seemed to fail in portraying country human nature in its most genuine moods and aspects. 

"What gave to this intercourse an especial value was the proof it furnished to others 
that the brightest fun and the most enjoyable humor are not incompatible with the absence 
of envy, ill-nature, or coarseness. But after all, the permanent and essential reputation of 
Judge Kent will depend upon his character and career as a lawyer and judge, as a states- 
man and a citizen. Want of time and preparation will prevent my speaking of him at length 
in these relations. I remember him as a lawyer, rather indolent perhaps in the early prepar- 
ation of his cases, but when fairly engaged in them, earnest, forcible, comprehensive, and 
sometimes, when the occasion had aroused him to the exercise of his fullest powers, surpass- 
ingly eloquent, His earnestness and candor, the obvious sincerity of his opinions, in which 
there was a power of moral pathos, with the weight of his great character, secured to his 
addresses, whether to court or jury, the most friendly and careful consideration. These 
qualities, when transferred to the bench, added strength, steadiness, and acceptance to its 
deliberations and judgments. 

"Judge Kent was, however, in his studies and tastes eminently a statesman ; his true 
place would have been in the Senate of the United States, and he would have shed an added 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 31 

and unfading lustre upon that august body. His breadth of thought, his grasp of great 

questions, his habit of judging them by the reasons upon which they stood, and not by their 
trifling or personal relations, or accidents, supported by his noble and manly presence, would 
have made him a distinguished and honored member of that body. 

" His administration as Governor was dignified, faithful, and honest, and irradiated by a 
love for his adopted State which showed how deeply it had become to him an object of affec- 
tion and pride. His interest in the question of the Northeastern Boundary was intelligent 
and absorbing, and since the time of Enoch Lincoln it may not be too much to say that it had 
scarcely been upheld by any other hand with equal devotion and chivalry. 

" But where he lived so long and was so well known — in the Penobscot valley — his 
memory will be cherished with the most profound respect and the deepest affection as a citizen 
and as a man. Upon another occasion I have spoken of him before this Society as the fore- 
most citizen of this State. We shall long remember him, and those who knew him well will 
not hesitate to say, borrowing (with a slight change) the language of Thomas Carlyle in his 
memorable paper upon Sir Walter Scott, ' No sounder piece of manhood has been put 
together in this nineteenth century of time.' ' 

(The present sketch is compiled largely from " Memoir of Hon. Edward Kent, LL.D., 
by Hon. John E. Godfrey," reprinted from the Collections of the Maine Historical Society, 
vol. viii.) 




3 2 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 



f "^ WING, CHARLES, LL.D. A virtuous life demands our reverence; public and 
I "* private worth, our admiration ; long and practical usefulness, our gratitude. And 
^^^-^ when death has closed the labors of the wise and good it becomes a melancholy, 
yet not painful, duty to give utterance to the expressions of friendship, and contemplate the 
example which has been given. 

Charles Ewing was the only child of James Ewing, the Commissioner of Loans for the 
Slate of New Jersey for the whole period during which that office was continued, and tin- 
praise of whose integrity, accuracy in business, benevolence and piety will there be long 
remembered. He was of Irish descent, but born in the County of Cumberland, and was the 
youngest son of a numerous family, some of whom have been eminently distinguished for 
literature, science and professional ability. The subject of this sketch was born on the 8th 
day of July, i 780, in the County of Burlington, State of New Jersey. In his most tender years 
the same temper and correctness of deportment were exhibited which attended all his subse- 
quent conduct. Though gay, sprightly and animated, and enjoying the innocent amusements 
of boyhood, yet he was docile, obedient, and observant of every duty. He received his prepa- 
ratory education at the academy in Trenton, which at that time conducted its scholars through 
a course of studies beyond the ordinary requirements of grammar schools, and at an early age 
he passed through this course with a zeal, assiduity and talent which secured to him the palm 
in merit and scholarship. 

At sixteen he entered the College of New Jersey, and at eighteen received the first degree 
in the Arts, the highest honors of the Institution being awarded to him alone, as the just 
reward of capacity, industry and correct conduct, in a class whose members were highly distin- 
guished for them all. He bestowed a full and proper attention on all the studies of the Insti- 
tution, but if there was one more his favorite than the rest, and in which the energy of his 
mind most clearly exhibited itself, it was mathematical science. No one has at any time left 
that venerated and most valuable seminary of learning more deeply imbued with the sciences 
and ornamented with the literature which have been so long, ably and skilfully taught there. 

After the usual clerkship he was admitted to the bar of his native State. In entering 
upon his profession, he [(referred to make the City of Philadelphia the theatre of his exertions. 
But the persuasions of his friends induced him to yield his society to them, and make his native 
State the scene of his usefulness. (At this time, and shortly after his admission to the bar, 
Mr. Ewing married Eleanor Graham, eldest daughter of the Rev. James F. Armstrong, of 
Trenton.) He received his license in 1802, was admitted a counsellor in 1805, and in the 
short space of seven years was called by the Court to the honorary degree of sergeant — an 
evidence of the high estimation in which his character and acquirements were held. Residing 
at the seat of government, he confined his practise to the adjoining counties and the higher 




■ ; 




■/* 




(AAO 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 33 

courts of the State, seeking, with his characteristic prudence, rather to give himself time for full 
and accurate preparation in all his causes, than to extend the circle of his active employment. 
His properties as a lawyer were extensive knowledge and a just estimate of funda- 
mental principles ; close acquaintance with cases and decisions; accuracy in the forms and 
rules applicable both to practice and the rights of the parties; indefatigable industry in his 
investigations ; clear discrimination and sound judgment He took his points, and stated them 
with uncommon singleness and perspicuity, sustained them by fair and cogent argument, and 
never failed to exhibit in their support all the learning of the cases and the best reasonings of 
the judges. As a speaker he had a full share of advantages. His person was manly; his 
features large and open, but not harsh ; his eye prominent and mild ; his voice strong and 
clear ; his enunciation distinct ; and these united bespoke attention and trust, and reached at 
once the understanding and hearts of his auditors. Cool and cautious, he did not permit his 
feelings to transport him beyond the line of discretion and decorum. His language was clas- 
sically pure and correct. A chaste and polished scholar, and enjoying his learning with high 
delight, he was not fond of displaying it, and was always reluctant to cover his honest English 
with foreign ornaments. With a playful imagination, and fine fancy and keen wit, he did not 
often indulge them, especially when engaged in legal discussions, for he felt too deeply the 
weight of his responsibility in representing his client's rights to venture where the argument 
did not force him. The fairness of his conduct as an advocate, and his integrity and learning 
as a counsellor, gave him an unusual share of the confidence both of courts and juries — to 
such an extent, indeed, that unsuccessful parties sometimes ventured the complaint that it was 
the influence of the counsel, not the justice of the cause, which had triumphed. But that con- 
fidence was deserved, for nowhere could they find a safer judgment, better knowledge or 
fairer dealing in an advocate. During twenty-two years he led an active professional life, and 
did not permit himself to be turned aside by the allurements of pleasure, speculation or office. 

In October, 1824, the esteem and affection of his fellow-citizens led to that result which 
is always to be desired, always grateful to correct feeling, always profitable to the public 
interests, always safe under popular institutions. His real merits, sound integrity, compre- 
hensive learning, great capacity for business, and fitness for public service, found their appro- 
priate location in the office of chief justice of the State in which he lived. The station was 
unsought, unsolicited, and reluctantly accepted ; but the selection did honor to the discern- 
ment and wisdom of the appointing power, and was made in a manner which called on his 
high sense of duty to yield his personal interests and convenience to the public wishes. 

As a judge he was learned both in principles and cases, ami prompt in their application : 
a strict common law lawyer, he had drawn deeply from the original sources of legal principles, 
and always delighted to find in the old authorities both the establishment and the reason of 
the doctrine on which he was to decide. But he did not rely on them alone, lie read dili- 
gently, and derived the aid which they afford from the volumes of civil and ecclesiastical law ; 

3 



34 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

and examined carefully and improved by all the legal publications of the day. He understood 
thoroughly and respected the relations which the tribunals, of which he was a member, bore 
in the comparatively complicated system of our Union ; ami while, on the one hand, he 
avoided trespassing upon powers granted by the people to other jurisdictions ; on the other 
hand, he could not be led to surrender the least part of that which they had conferred on his 
own. In Bruen vs. Ogden, and other cases, his views on this point are beautifully illustrated, 
and exhibit not only the correct opinions and feelings of the judge, but of the citizen and 
patriot ; and the language which he used in relation to the courts of the United States did 
honor both to his head and his heart. He always took upon himself all the responsibilities of 
the judge and discharged his obligations to juries fully, by guiding them in matters of law 
and, when it was proper, aiding them in their estimate of tacts and evidence. He held it a 
duty of the court to instruct them both in civil and criminal cases, and would not permit them, 
in the exercise of their right, to judge of the law in criminal matters, to disregard its provi- 
sions — but promptly and efficiently interfered to arrest their errors. And this out of no 
disregard of their rights. For the system of jury trial he had a fond admiration, and watched 
over it with parental care. His exposition ot it, in a lecture before the Literary and Philo- 
sophical Society of New Jersey, is the most finished and beautiful exhibition ot its merits 
which is to be found in the same compass in our language. He saw it as it is, an establish- 
ment of freedom ; the privilege and shield of freemen ; valuable for the support and perpetu- 
ation of our institutions ; not only by guarding against oppression in every form, but by 
frequently calling on the citizen to partake in the administration of justice ; thereby interest- 
ing his feelings in its support and instructing him in his own rights and duties. , 

To his labor as a judge there was but one limit — the perfect examination of every ques- 
tion he had to decide. Short of this point he never rested. He was not satisfied while one 
fact or authority remained unexamined, or one avenue to light unexplored. Amusements of 
a becoming and moral character he did not spurn ; social pleasures he enjoyed ; literary and 
scientific acquisitions were his delight ; on domestic enjoyments his heart rested with fond- 
ness : yet none of these were ever found in the way of his complete investigations, and his 
entire performance of every official duty. During the sittings of the court over which he 
presided, it was his practice to examine and arrange all the papers in the causes, to note the 
points of difficulty and the means for their elucidation, in readiness for consulting with his 
brethren. At the close of the terms he investigated all the cases which were reserved for 
consideration, and prepared opinions upon them. In all cases in which it was proper for him 
to express an opinion, and important that it should be recorded, his views were expressed in 
writing: and these were usually the judgments of the court. After his death, his written 
opinions were found in all the cases which had been argued and submitted to him at the pre- 
ceding term of the court ; and this notwithstanding the immense labor he had undergone in 
that great and interesting controversy in the Society of Friends, which he had been called into 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 35 

chancery to hear and determine. His opinions were clearly and forcibly expressed in pure 
judicial diction, omitting nothing and leaving nothing in doubt. They may justly be compared 
with any with which the profession has been favored by the State tribunals. His integrity and 
impartiality were without a stain ; nay, they were never approached even by suspicion. 
Strong as were his attachments of all kinds, and ardent as were his feelings, on the bench he 
knew no man. The innocent and the guilty, the rich and the poor, the strong and the feeble, 
the powerful controller of popular opinion and the humble slave of others wills, had an equal 
measure of justice before him. With his eye fixed on law and justice, no influence could 
solicit, no power could drive him from the path which he believed led to their attainment ; and 
he had the moral courage to dare to do whatever his judgment and conscience told him was 
his duty. If the time had come when trespasses were threatened, and the Constitution and 
the laws in danger, he would have disregarded alike the tumults of popular excitement and 
the frowns of power. As was his learning, so was that spirit fitted not alone for the station 
which he occupied, but for any other, even the highest judicial tribunal, and there those who 
knew him best ardently desired to see him. We have said that he was worthy of imitation as 
an advocate and counsellor; we will add that the judge can go nowhere for a purer and 
better model. He stands more than acquitted in the great account between him and his 
country — of confidence bestowed and answered — of responsibility imposed and discharged — 
of duty assigned and performed, of office conferred and dignified, of the administration of 
law and justice confided, and faithfully and impartially sustained and vindicated. 

In youth and early manhood he was an active and ardent politician, and, entertaining at 
all times clear and decided convictions on public measures and political subjects, he acted 
upon them through life in the exercise of his right of suffrage, and frankly avowed them when- 
ever the occasion demanded. His political views and opinions were those of Washington and 
Marshall. He admired the institutions of the country, believed they were adapted to its 
present condition, fitted to secure its happiness and prosperity and to protect the enjoyment 
of liberty, and, resting upon safe grounds, that it was not wise to change them. Always 
decided and firm as a politician, he was at no time intemperate or intolerant ; nor was he of 
any party in his friendships or in his office. His unanimous reappointment in [831, when he 
differed from the prevailing party in opinion, testifies to the correctness of this observation. 
And that which was done then would have been found true in any state of political feeling. 
No party would have ventured to break his hold on the station which he occupied, which was 
not less that of office than of control in the affections of his fellow-citizens. 

He always contemned the fallacy that public and official merit may safely be sought,. and 
public interests be safely confided to those who disregard the duties and obligations of moral- 
it) and justice. lb- had an elevated standard both for public and private virtue, ami this 
standard was erected by the religious, moral and philosophical creed which he had adopted. 
It rested on the revelation of a law, as the source and test of virtue. In that revelation he had 



36 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

unwavering faith, for he had applied to it every principle of legal and philosophical investiga- 
tion, and found it sustained by the highest and strongest evidence, amounting to demonstra- 
tion. " Desiring to be himself nothing better nor nobler than man, he was content to be 
nothing less ;" but it was not man in ruin, but in his best estate, as redeemed by the blood 
and purified by the grace of the Redeemer ; and he acted and lived and labored to make his 
fellow-men see and feed their own interests in aspiring to the same elevation. 

Hence he was the zealous advocate of all efforts for the improvement of the moral condi- 
tion of society ; of every plan that was calculated to advance and render dear and valuable the 
relations of home and of country, and which tends to the melioration of the condition of 
morality. 

He was especially the advocate of education in all its valuable forms. Himself a ripe 
scholar, and conferring honor on the highest literary degree, which his known merits had 
received from a respectable literary institution, he devoted much of his time to advance not 
only the literature and science of his country, but to extend the means of cultivating the mind 
to every class, even the humblest of his fellow-citizens. He was for twelve years a trustee of 
the College of New Jersey, and scarcely ever absent from the meetings of the Board ; and 
none of the venerated members of that body carried into the government of that seminary a 
purer spirit, a more active zeal, a wiser judgment, more useful talent and higher ardor in the 
cause of education. 

His studies as a scholar were never neglected He retained and extended his knowledge 
of the writings of ancient authors, particularly in the Latin language ; and, having previously 
read and studied them in the original, he was engaged, previous to his decease, in reviewing 
them in the best translations. He kept pace, also, with the learning of the day, and there are 
few literary men, even among those whose time is not occupied by official or other engage- 
ments, who were so conversant with all branches of science, and all the modern publications. 
His reading was various, both in works of fancy and graver authors. He had a fine poetic 
taste, which he sometimes indulged in writing, and has left several beautiful specimens, which 
create regret that their number was not greater. They indicate the delicacy of his feelings, 
the keenness of his sensibility, the purity of his sentiments, and the classic elegance of his 
style. But his chief literary pleasures were found in works of historical and philosophical cast, 
and which treat of the higher moral and social obligations and duties. The Bible, with one of 
them usually in Latin or French, was the companion of his leisure hours and of all his journey- 
ings, whether official or for health and recreation. He had a prompt and sprightly wit, but 
seldom exhibited it — never but in moments of the freest social enjoyment, and never to the 
injury of the feelings of others or of the cause of virtue. 

But his high elevation, his pure joy, his bright earthly honor, was in home. It was there 
that the soundness of his judgment, the wisdom of his counsel, the mildness of his temper, the 
firmness of his purposes, the affectionate tone of his manners, the unequalled tenderness of his 






OF BIOGRAPHY. 37 

heart, the dignity and elevation of his virtues, appeared in all their loveliness and all their 
strength. And they only could truly estimate his worth who saw and knew him there. There 
he was eminently great, and good and wise. There, too, "he loved to love ;" and the only 
pang he ever caused was when he ceased to love. (The decease of Chief Justice Ewing 
marked a period of national calamity. The cholera, which had originated in Asia in 1H17, and 
had exhibited its desolating power in its western course through Europe, made its first appear- 
ance in Montreal, in the summer of 1832, and very soon extended its ravages through the 
United States. Judge Ewing fell among its earliest victims, at Trenton, New Jersey, on the 
5th of August of that year.) The life and character which have engaged our attention are 
such as the heart delights to contemplate. They form a consistent whole, with no irregularity 
of proportion. They were supported by a vigorous intellect, sustained by lofty purpose, and 
based upon an honest and feeling heart. Such it was his high ambition to be, and such he was. 
Such does the State of which he was a native regard him, and he will continue to be admired 
as one of the richest portions of the Corinthian capital of her fame. The universal distress of 
her citizens, the excited sympathies and profound emotions expressed by the learned, the 
patriotic, the wise and the benevolent, of every rank and sect, form a precious tribute to his 
worth, and o-ive assurance that he did not live in vain, and that his name and actions will lono - 
continue in remembrance. — National Portrait Gallery. 




3 8 I..V CYCLOPAEDIA 



(U 



TLLIAMS, REUEL, of Augusta, Maine. Born June 2, 17S3, in that part of the 
ancient town of Hallowell, which is now the City of Augusta and the capital of 
the State. He was the second of twelve children of Captain Seth and Zilpha 
(Ingraham) Williams of that place. His father was of character and consequence. 
The father emigrated from Stoughton, Massachusetts, in 1779, and married Zilpha, daughter 
of Jeremiah and Abigail Hartwell Ingraham, who were among the early settlers of Augusta. 
The mother impressed her own characteristics upon her children, and especially upon Reuel. 
Self-reliant, shrewd, firm, energetic, and conscientious, she possessed unbounded affection, 
every motherly virtue, and every Christian grace. 

Reuel Williams studied in the common schools of his native town until he had attained 
the age of twelve years, when he was sent to Hallowell Academy. Boarding at home, 
he traversed the two miles between his domicile and the institution every morning and night, 
and was always at school in time. Here he acquired a classical education, sufficient to 
qualify him for admission to college, before he was fifteen years old. In the evenings he 
worked on the shoemaker's bench — for his father was a disciple of Crispin — and often 
finished a shoe before retiring for the night. Thus, unconsciously perhaps, he was laying, 
broad and firm, the foundations of future fame and wealth. After leaving the Academy he 
filled the place of toll-gatherer for the Kennebec bridge, built at Augusta, and completed in 
1798, and thus aided his father in the support of the family, while wisely utilizing every 
leisure hour for study. At this period he attracted the notice of Judge James Bridge, a 
prominent lawyer of the Kennebec bar, and a noble man, who invited him to enter his office 
as a student-at-law. The youth accepted the invitation, entered the office of Mr. Bridge on 
the 25th of June, 1798, earned his support by writing while pursuing his studies, and in this 
way accumulated more than one thousand dollars before he was nineteen years of age. He 
soon began to share an interest in the profits of the law business, and invested his savings in 
real estate on the east side of the river, which he continued to own at the time ot his death. 

( )n reaching his majority in 1804 he was admitted to the bar. Declining the proposition 
of two fellow-students to migrate with them to Cincinnati for the practice of law, he settled 
down deliberately for life in the town of his birth, and there became one of its most influential 
and valued citizens. Indeed, the results of his zeal anil foresight form an essential part of its 
history. In 1807 Mr. Williams first came into professional prominence. Judge Bridge, his 
preceptor and partner, had for years been the agent of the " Proprietors of the Kennebec 
Purchase," a large tract of land, the management of which involved investigation of titles, 
sales, and collections, in all of which Williams became an expert. Engaged with Nathan 
Dane, in Boston, as junior counsels for the Proprietors, before the Commissioners of Eastern 
Lands, he was highly complimented by that tribunal on his thorough and profound legal 



OF BIOGRAPin 3g 

knowledge, and the clearness and ability with which he presented and managed his case. In 
1811 his name appears in the Massachusetts Reports as counsel in a law question in 
opposition to the learned and able Judge WiUle ; and thenceforward for nearly thirty years, 
until he took his seat in the United States Senate, his name constantly occurs in the reports 
of important law cases tried in the courts both of Massachusetts and of Maine. 

In 1812 Judge Bridge retired from practise with an abundant fortune, and left Mr. 
Williams in full receipt of all the emoluments of their large business. The relation between 
him and Williams had been similar to that of the English barrister to the solicitor. The latter 
prepared the materials of the case, and the former presented ami argued it. Thenceforward 
Mr. Williams had to do both, and did so with great sharpness and clearness of legal vision, 
closeness of logical argumentation, remarkable power of analysis, and effective method of 
arrangement. 

In aTldition to his agency for the " Proprietors of the Kennebec Purchase," he had charge 
of the Bowdoin College Lands, a very large and valuable property, which he managed with 
consummate skill. In his large miscellaneous practise his addresses to juries as well as the 
Courts were condensed, concentrated, direct, and convincing. Less learned than practical, 
he was very effective and successful. His reputation became widely known, and in 1N15 he 
was honored by Harvard College with the degree of Master of Arts. In 1N55, when full of 
years and honors, Bowdoin College acknowledged his eminent merit by conferring upon him 
the degree of Doctor of Laws. 

In 1 81 6, in conjunction with Judge Bridge and Thomas L. Winthrop, of Boston, Mr. 
Williams purchased the lands, property, and remaining interests of the Kennebec Proprietors. 
The investment proved to be lucrative. The records, plans, and papers — ot great historic 
value — belonging to the Proprietors are now in the archives of the Maim: Historical Society. 
In 1818 he was active in organizing the Lincoln and Kennebec Society for the removal oi 
obstructions in the Kennebec River, which afterward procured sundry improvements by the 
United States, including- the erection of light-houses at the mouth oi the Kennebec River. 

Reuel Williams was an earnest and effective advocate of the separation of Maine from 
Massachusetts. In the years 1822-25 he served as a member of the House of Representa- 
tives, and in the years 1826-28 as a member of the Senate of Maine. During this period he 
was the leader of the movement to make Augusta the State capital. In 1829. [832, and 1S4S 
he was also a member of the lower House. 

Although rooted in his native town, the sympathies and beneficence of Mr. Williams were 
wide as his State, his country— as the world itself. From 1822 to i860 he was one of the 
Trustees of Bowdoin College, labored earnestly for its welfare, and greatly regretted the 
attempt to narrow its catholic spirit and liberal principles within the limits of sectarian exclu- 
siveness. In 1822 he became one of the forty-nine corporate members of the Maine Historical 
Society, and liberally contributed to its support. On the 15th of February, 1825, he was 



4 o ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

appointed one <>l the commissioners ol Maine to divide the public lands, held in common with 
Massachusetts under the Act of Separation, and discharged his arduous and delicate trust with 
wonted intelligence and fidelity. On the 27th of March, 1831, he was appointed Commissioner 
ol Public Buildings, and superintended the completion ol the Capitol till it was fitted for the 
use of the State Government and the legislative sessions. On the 10th of May, 1832, he was 
appointed Commissioner ol Maine, with Win. Pitt Preble, and Nicholas Emery, in reference 
to the Northeastern Boundary. In this capacity he first made the acquaintance of President 
(ackson, of whom he became a political supporter, so far as was consistent with his own 
sense ot right. He remained identified with the Democratic party down to the repeal of the 
Missouri Compromise — a measure which he regarded as the commencement of many and 
serious troubles. 

In the negotiations connected with the boundary question, [ackson gave utterance to a 
sentiment which Williams thought worthy to be remembered. Some one spoke of public 
opinion. "Public opinion' What is public opinion?" said Jackson. "Right is public 
opinion. I am public opinion when I do right." The Northeastern Boundary dispute dates 
back to the first occupation of the country by Europeans. The French settled on the St. 
Lawrence, the Pmglish on the Atlantic coast, and the natural boundary between the two was 
the summit of the water-shed common to both. Before this line was surveyed and marked, 
after the Revolution, war broke out between Great Britain and the United States. England, 
for military reasons, refused to further run and mark the line, as agreed, and the Treaty of 
Ghent had unfortunately provided for the submission of disputed matters to arbitration. The 
King of the Netherlands was selected as the umpire. He gravely' decided that there was no 
ridge or water-shed separating the waters flowing into the St. Lawrence from those (lowing into 
the Atlantic ocean, and advised that the bed of the St. John River be adopted for the boundary. 
Jackson wished Maine to accept this recommendation, but Maine was in no humor to do so, 
ami the matter remained unsettled until after Mr. Williams' election to the United States 
Senate on February 22, 1S37. Taking his seat in that august body at the extra session on 
the 4th of September, he was placed on the Committees of Naval Affairs and of Roads and 
Canals, and later on that of the District of Columbia. 

In Congress, Senator Williams steadfastly supported the Administration in its financial 
policy, and advised and supported the plan of an independent Treasury; dispensing altogether 
with the aid of banks, providing a set of Government officers to take charge of the public 
money, and requiring the payment of all public dues exclusively in specie. He had the 
satisfaction of seeing this plan embodied in the National statutes. But the work of the 
session of 1837-38 for which he is to be most gratefully remembered is his successful labor 
for the establishment of the Government Hospital for the insane of the District of Columbia, 
ami of the Army, Navy and Revenue service of the- United States. That institution is now 
one of the proudest ornaments of the National capital. Neither did he forget the unfortunate 






OF BIOGRAPHY. 4 r 

in his own State, but gave ten thousand dollars toward the foundation of the Maim- Insam 
Hospital, an institution of which he was for fifteen years one of the trustees, and whose 
progress he watched with almost parental solicitude. 

The Northeastern Boundary dispute came before the United States Senate again in 1838. 
Senator Williams' speeches on this question evinced great research, perfect knowledge of the 
subject, ami remarkable power. The consummation of the Treaty of Washington, who 
ratification he could not prevent, caused him deep personal chagrin and disappointment, but 
he had nobly done his duty, and could but acquiesce in a fact accomplished. 

Re-elected to the United States Senate in 1839, he served therein until [843, when the 
magnitude oi his private interests ami his indifference to the honors of public life united to 
cause his resignation. While in legislative office no service could be more conscientious and 
complete than his. A public trust he held to be quite as sacred as a private one. and in his 
hands both were equally safe. 

Reuel Williams was a statesman ; not a supple partisan. Able and independent, his 
attitude was one of lofty superiority to mere party. He opposed Calhoun in his effort to 
exclude blacks from the naval service ; he spoke and voted for the Whig Tariff of 1842. which 
but lor his support would have been lost. He fearlessly antagonized the annexation of Texas. 
and predicted that it would result in the dissolution of the Union, or in protracted civil war — 
a prophecy whose fulfillment he lived long enough to witness. In the bright galaxy of Sena 
torial talent by which he was surrounded his own rank and standing were conspicuous and 
enduring. 

As a lawyer he was deservedly held in the highest estimation. Daniel Webster being 
associated with him as counsel in a celebrated case in the Circuit Court oi the United States, 
treated him with extraordinary' and sincere deference, in view <>l his knowledge and abilities. 
In the comprehensive and far-reaching railroad enterprises of Maine he was prominent and 
influential. He realized the necessity ot these highways of commerce and travel to arrest 
depletion of population, ami to promote the prosperity and development of his native State. 
Circumstances are not always controllable, and particularly by members of corporations ; and 
rival local interests in railroad matters were adverse to the immediate pecuniary interest ot 
Mr. Williams. He lost large sums of money in the original construction of railroads in 
Maine, but, looking at the result in the general good accomplished, he afterward said, '• ] do 
not, on the whole, regret it. I doubt if my time and monej could have accomplished 
so much good in any other way " This is the reflection of a wise man. who measures lite and 
its relations by infinitely higher than perishable monetary standards. In September. 1 86 1 . lie 
sold all his railroad interests, and once more became free from perplexing tares. 

But new duties still awaited him. In < >ctober he accepted the appointment of Commis 
sioner of Maim- to Washington, to inaugurate a sv stem of i oast defenses for the loyal States. 
The fort at the mouth of the Kennebec was one result of his mission. His bodily strength at 

4 



42 ENCYCLOPEDIA 

this time had suffered but little impairment, his mental powers none at all. This visit to 
Washington was his last public service, the graceful rounding oil of a long life of public 
usefulness and duty, and was wholly acceptable to the Legislature and Governor of Maine, 
as also to the National Government. 

Returning from a journey to Boston, [uly 4, 1S62, his friends were for the first time 
admonished of his failing strength. He soon perceived this himself, and said, I fail to regain 
my strength, and I do not know as I desire to. He died July 25, 1S62. Calm and unruffled, 
as in the days of his manly strength, he cheerfully awaited the summons of death with the 
dignity of a philosopher and the meekness of a Christian. 

As citizen, neighbor, ami friend, his life had been most exemplary. The care of schools, 
the education of the young, the opening of highways, the establishment of lines of communi- 
cation by means of stage-coaches, and of steamboats, before the advent of railways, were 
among the matters carefully looked after by him ; as well as the building of churches, hotels, 
and other public edifices. He was an advocate, ami an exemplar, too, of the doctrine of 
encouragement to home industry, in the building of foundries, factories, and other works for 
employing capital and labor. His tine physical organization, the labors of his early life, his 
cheerful spirit, temperate habits, moral culture, promptitude, thoroughness, and love of system 
and order, and his extraordinary self-reliance and self-control, were all elements of his 
splendid success in life. His home was the most charming theatre of all his virtues. There 
his qualities of mind and heart shone with most benign lustre. In religious belief and asso- 
ciation Mr. Williams was a Unitarian, and he was a liberal supporter of the Unitarian 
Church. 

He was a kindly and generous, but often secret, helper of others who were struggling with 
adversity or difficulty. With every opportunity for self-indulgence, he maintained to the last 
the virtues of an almost austere simplicity, with the wisest private and public generositv, 
furnishing a striking instance for the application of Solon's criterion of happiness, that — He 
to whom Divinity continues happiness unto the end, we ma)- call happy. 

He was married on tin: 19th of November, 1807, to Sarah Lowell, daughter of the Hon. 
1 >aniel Cony, of Augusta. Of their nine children, one son and eight daughters, five survived 
the death of their honored sire. 

The following genealogy, embracing the results of recent researches in England, instituted 
by his son (Joseph H. Williams), traces the family lineage into Gloucestershire, and contains 
the name not only of the birthplace (Wotton-under-Edge) but of the father, of Richard 
Williams, the immigrant ancestor, who came to America, with his wile, in 1636-37, and made 
a permanent settlement in Taunton, Mass., in 1037 : — 

I. Richard Williams' (the son of William) was born at Wotton-under-Edge, in Glouces- 
tershire, England, and was baptized [anuary 28, 1606. He died in Taunton, Mass., in 1693. 
He married Frances Dighton, daughter of |ohn and [ane 1 Bassett) Dighton, born in Gloucester 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 



43 



England. She was baptized March n, 1611. She died at Taunton, Mass., in 1706. 
Her mother was a descendant of the ancient Berkeley family. 

The record of their marriage is as follows: "Richard Williams of the parishe of St. 
Johns, in Glouc r , and Frances Dieghton of the parishe of St. Nicholas, in Glouc', aforesayed, 
were married the xlth day of February, at Witcombe Magna, by Mr. Stubbs, preacher, 1632." 

II. Children, born in Gloucester, England: 2. John', baptized March 27, 1634; died 
young. 3. Elizabeth 2 , baptized February 7, 1635 (6) ; died young. 

Children, born in Taunton, Mass : 4. Samuel 2 , born about 1639. 5. Nathaniel*, baptized 

February 7, 1641. 6. Joseph 2 . 7. Thomas 2 . 8. Elizabeth', born 1647. 9. Hannah 2 . +10. 

Benjamin 2 . 

J 10. 

III. Benjamin 2 (Richard 1 ) was born in Taunton. He married March 16, ; 689, (90) 
Rebecca, daughter of Lieut. George Macy, of Taunton. He died in July, 1701, and sin 
married, August 29, 1 706, James Leonard. He died November 1, 1720, and she April 3, 
1728, in Raynham. 

Children, born in Taunton: 11. Rebecca 3 , born November 20, 1690. fi2. [osiah 3 , born 
November 7, 1692. 13. Benjamin 3 , born July 31, 1695. '4 John 3 , born March 27, 1699. 

1 2. 

IV. Josiah 3 (Benjamin 2 Richard') was born in Taunton, November 7, 1692. He married. 
January 26, 1714 (5), Martha, daughter of Ephraim Howard, of Bridgewater (born in 1695). 
He died October 27, 1770, and she September 2, 1746. 

Children, born in Bridgewater: 15. Rebecca 4 , born December 25, 1715. 16. Mary 4 , 
born April 30, 17 18. 17. George 4 , born January 9, 1720 (1) ; died April 3, 1721. 18. Seth', 
born May 21, 1722. 19. Josiah 4 , born May 7, 1725. 20. Martha 4 , born May 24. 1728. 21. 
Susanna 4 , born January 24, 1730 (31). 22. Macy 4 , born February 9, [735 (36). 

After the death of Martha, Josiah- married for his second wife, Sarah, widow 01 l.lisha 

Bisbee. of Pembroke. 

18. 

V. Seth 4 (Josiah 3 , Benjamin", Richard') was born in Bridgewater, May 22, 1722. He 
moved to Easton, and married, May 21, 1750, Lusanna Fobes, of Bridgewater, born May 26, 
1732. He died July 8, 1759, and she married, fune 1, 1765, Job White, of Mansfield. 

Children, born in Easton : 23. Ed ward s , born January 28, 1750 (51). 24. Marlborough 5 , 

born April 9, 1753. 25. Josiah', born September 21, 1755. |26. Seth, born December 13. 

1756. 27. Asa, born June 5, 1758. 

26. 

VI. Seth 5 (Seth 4 , Josiah 3 , Benjamin", Richard') was born in Easton, Mass., December 13, 
1756. He married, January 1, 1781, Zilpha, daughter of Jeremiah and Abigail (Hartwell) 
Ingraham, Jr., of Stoughton, Mass. He removed to Augusta in 1779. He died March iN, 
1N17, and she September 20, 1845. 



,, ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

Children, horn in Augusta: 28. 1 1 art well' . horn November 15, 1781 ; married Sarah, 
daughter of Edmund Bridge of Dresden. f2Q. Reuel 6 , born June 2, 1783 30. Moses. 
born July 25, 1785; died September 3, 1S1S. 31. Seth 6 , born November 5. 1787; married 
Hannah, daughter of Doctor Waters of Wayne. 32. Sarah 6 , born May 19, 1789; married 
Charles Williams of Augusta. 33. Elizabeth 6 , born February 2, 1792; died March 3, 1794. 
34. Abigail 6 , born February 3, 1794: died unmarried September 24. 1 S48. 35 Daniel 6 , born 
November 12, 1795 ; married 1, Mary Sawtelle ol Norridgewock ; 2, Hannah Bridge, daughter 
of lion, lames Bridge of Augusta. 36. Edward 6 , born November 17. 1797; married 1. 
Louisa Lithgow of Dresden ; 2, Eliza Jane Perkins of Augusta. 37. Eliza 6 , born October 30, 
1799; married Eben Fuller of Augusta. 38. Helen Maria", born January 3, 1802 ; died 
March 23, 1 S 7 3 . 

29. 

VII. Reucl (Seth 5 , Seth 4 , fosiah 1 , Benjamin 3 , Richard') was born in Augusta, June 2. 1783, 
I b- married, November 19, 1807. Sarah Lowell (Cony), daughter ol lion. Daniel Cony of 
Augusta, lie died fuly 25, 1S62, and she October 17, 1867. 

Children, born in Augusta: 39. Sarah Bowdoin 7 , born August 20, 1 80S ; died 1889: 
married James Bridge of Augusta. 40. Paulina Cony 7 , born December 19, 1809; died 1845; 
married Charles Jones of Portland. 41. Susan Curtis 7 , born October 28, 181 1 ; died 1829. 
•J'42. [oseph Hartwell 7 , born February 15, 1814; married Apphia P. Judd of Northampton, 
Mass. 43. Martha Matilda 7 , born December 23, 1815: died August 31, 181 7. 44. Helen 
Augusta 7 , born November 30, 1817; married Dr. John T. Gilman of Portland. 45. |ane 
Elizabeth 7 , born December 1, 1819; married Rev. Sylvester |udd of Augusta, Maine. 46. 
Zilpha Ingraham 7 , born August 18, 1822; died 1851; married John L. Cutler of Farmington, 
Maine. 47. Ann Matilda 7 , born March 19, 1825. 

42. 

VIII. foseph Hartwell 7 (Reuel 6 , Seth 5 , Seth 4 , Josiah 3 , Benjamin', Richard') was born in 
Augusta, February 15, 1814. lie married, September 26, 1842, Apphia Putnam |udd. 
daughter of Sylvester |udd, Esq., of Northampton, Mass. 

Child, born in Augusta: 48. Arthur Lowell, born August 3, 1844: died December 15, 
1 S46. 






OMAJLsCjeyMi 




OF BIOGRAPHY. 45 



s^VEPEW, CHAUNCEY M., LL.D. In a nation of sixty five million freemen, select 
I ing their own rulers and governing themselves, the distinction of being the mosl 
"^ w distinguished citizen in private life is a high test of individual genius. This distinc- 
tion fairly belongs to Chauncey Mitchell Depew of New York. It is expected of 
men who occupy high places of public trust that they will so dispose of their lives that they will 
become widely known. The scrutiny of the public acts of public men by the people, to whom 
they are alone responsible, which is incessant under our form of free government, necessarily 
makes the names of public men household words. But even among public men scarcely 
more than one man in each decade makes his name ring round the world, unless some great 
event of history, like the Civil War, occurs to create heroes. At the present time no other 
American enjoys such universal fame as Mr. Depew, with the exception of that ripe statesman, 
James Gillespie Blaine. Mr. Blaine's world-wide reputation has been won in public life, where 
such things are the natural result in every land. But the instances where private citizens 
have become equally noted are so rare that in this day and generation Mr. Depew stands 
alone. The collective wealth of the Rothschilds, the Vanderbilts and the Astors, handed down 
through generations with steady accretions, have made the names of those families familiar, 
but no one ot these names is borne by an individual who has attained the prominence that 
maybe justly accorded to Mr. Depew as the result of his intellectual force and scintillant 
genius. It is to discover the qualities that have given Mr. I )epew this eminent position among 
men that this sketch of his career has been undertaken. It is beyond dispute that he is 
one of the marvelous men ol his age. 

'I he ordinary judgment ot the average citizen (and the average citizen is a voracious 
newspaper reader) concerning Mr. Depew is made up from the reports of his famous after- 
dinner speeches. " Sunset" Cox once said to a friend that he would barter all his worldly 
possessions to be rid ot his reputation tor wit. Mr. Depew may not have the same feeling 
about his reputation as an after-dinner speaker, but it has often overshadowed his greatness. 
It by no means represents him as he is known to his friends and acquaintances, to the world 
of literature or among men ot brains and culture. A single halt hour in his companionship 
or the opportunity to hear him speak upon any topic whatever, will show how utterly faulty is 
the bubble reputation given him through the press by reason ol the spontaneous wit and 
humor with which his nature is impregnated, and which invariably oozes out when he is in 
good company, lie is one of the four or five Americans who are destined to stand out in 
history regardless of public position — a man ot" breadth and depth and stature ol intellect 
which places him alongside of Hamilton. Clay, Webster, Rufus Choate, Douglas, Lincoln, 
Greeley and fere Black of past generations, and matches him with Blaine in the present It 
is impossible that a man who has risen by his talent alone to he the head ol a great system of 



4 6 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

railroads, employing a larger number of men than the United States Government itselt, 
should be fairly gauged by his after-dinner relaxation and pleasantry. In his addresses on 
public occasions, in political campaigns, at college commencements and elsewhere, a list 
of which will be given further on, a broader and more: complete estimate of his surpassing 
ability and capacity for thought and expression is to be formed. But, alter all, it is when he 
sits down for a deliberate, calm and dispassionate discussion of himself in connection with 
the Presidential office, the highest honor that any American citizen can court or have 
bestowed upon him, that he is seen and heard at his best. 

When a man walks among the stars he may scarcely be blamed if he becomes dizzy, 
loses his level headeduess and totters and falls. When he can resolutely face the stars from 
a place among the stars, and in that giddy height retain the coolness to see his situation as 
others see it, he may be commended not as one in fifty thousand or an hundred thousand, 
but literally as one in the millions. Mr. Depew walks down from his home on Fifty-fourth 
street to his office in the Grand Central Depot about 10 o'clock every morning. His desk 
at that hour is piled high with letters and papers — especially papers. Every paper in the 
smallest and most remote rural town that makes a three-line mention of "Our Chauncey," or 
even weaves his name into some poor rhyme of "fancy," is sent to him, duly marked by the 
editor, who expects thereby to secure at least one free round-trip pass for himself and wile to 
Niagara Falls or Saratoga, not to mention an annual over the New York Central. Mr. Depew 
is fortunate in having a lively and industrious secretary in the person of Lieutenant H. C. 
I hival, of the Seventh Regiment, who has a daily scrapping match with all this mail before 
Mr. Depew's arrival, and only important or personal letters come directly to his attention. 
Thousands are satisfactorily answered in the course of the year which have not come to his 
eye. The perusal of his mail is the sauce with which he spices and digests his breakfast, for 
he has read his morning [taper before he sits down to his meal. He runs his eye through 
a letter, sandwiches it with a newspaper extract, chats with whoever may drop in to see him 
on business, dictates replies to his stenographer, or stops it all for some important consultation 
with the heads of departments of the New York Central Road, or with the directors, whose 
board room adjoins his office. It is here, in this busy morning hour, when he is freshest, but 
the heaviest burdened, working, thinking, directing and planning, that he is seen in one of 
his most natural conditions, and this is the hour when his friends find him when they go to 
talk with him about the use of his name in connection with the highest gift which the people 
can bestow upon any citizen, the honor and the responsibility of the Presidency. The writer 
saw Mr. Depew frequently during the weeks that preceded the Republican National Con- 
vention of iSSS, at which his name was formally presented as New York's choice for the 
Presidential nomination, and observed with wonder the frankness and openness with which 
he discussed himself in that relation — admitting and even pointing out his weak points as 
a possible candidate; restraining by calm words that ardor so common in politics ami which 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 47 

breaks over all bounds and is without discretion ; speaking candidly of support that he knew 
he could command as a candidate which others could not command ; and yet invariably 
indicating in innumerable ways that he had neither lost his balance, become crazed by 
ambition, or dropped that calm poise which enables men to judge coolly of passing events. 
Taking Mr. Depew's measure in this morning hour at his office he is a natural politician. 
He checks men without repelling them ; he encourages them, at the same time that he 
indicates possible insurmountable difficulties in the way of accomplishing what they desire. 
There is art in all this, but it is the art of nature's creation, not of long study and acquired 
practice. Men who knew Abraham Lincoln intimately declare that there is no nearer approach 
in any man of to-day to the inimitable, spontaneous, wholesome humor that characterized the 
rail-splitter of Illinois than is to lie found in Mr. Depew. It is this humorous strain in his 
nature that makes his after-dinner speeches as revivifying as old tokay and gives his solid 
orations the sparkle of champagne. Yet, like the glorious wine;, beneath every Hashing bit 
of humor there may be discerned, spread out like the base of a mountain, the broad genius 
of humanity as the foundation of every thought and utterance. 

Mr. Depew has already informed the world on numerous occasions that he was bom in IVeks- 
kill, and he is now in the prime of life at fifty-six. He has French Huguenot blood in his veins on 
his father's side, and through his mother traces descent from the Shermans, of whom his great 
uncle, Roger Sherman, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence. His grandfather 
Chauncey R Mitchell, was a distinguished lawyer, whose eloquence was famous. The Depew 
homestead in Peekskill, which he still fondly calls his home, has been in the family for two 
hundred years. He spent his boyhood there, prepared for college, was known as an apt 
scholar of unmistakeable promise and somewhat of a leader among his fellows. At eighteen he 
went to Yale College, and in 1856 graduated with one of the first honors of his class. That 
year was signalized by the birth of the Republican party, and his first vote for President was 
cast for John C. Fremont. His antecedents were Democrats, but he had been an earnest student 
of the causes leading up to the formation of the new party, and he promptly affiliated with 
it and became ardent in the support of its principles and candidates. He was especially well 
grounded in his opposition to the extension of slavery into the Territories, Huguenot blood 
and Puritan blood alike combining in indignant protest against the oppression of slavery itself. 
With the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1S54, and the defiant attitude of the South to 
carry slavery into Kansas and Nebraska, he became convinced that the arrogance and encroach- 
ments of the slave power must be checked, ami was enthusiastic in advocating stubborn 
resistance. He was then without political experience, but it is an important incident in his 
life, which shows that at the first cross-roads his moral perceptions turned him to the right. 

On leaving college Mr. Depew studied law with 1 Ion. William Nelson in his native town. 
He was admitted to the bar in 1N5.K, and the same year, by reason of his activity ami 
earnestness in advocating Republican principles, was elected .1 delegate to the Republican 



4 ,x ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

State Convention. I [e began the practise of law about the same time, and demonstrated his 
ability for the profession, but he seemed more at home in politics, where it was clear that he 
could do his country and his part) good service, and, while he sought no office, his career in 
law was for a time interrupted I le gave his whole heart to the work ol promoting liberty, 
lor which he had inherited passionate love from his ancestry, as well as hitter hatred ol every 
form of oppression. I lis talent was speedily recognized by the party leaders, ami he was 
taken into the highest councils. In i86o, through his campaign speeches on behall ot 
Lincoln, he first gained recognition lor his marvelous gifts ol oratory, lie was a genuine 
orator, who was hailed with delight wherever he went, lie had the touch with the people 
which was so characteristic of Lincoln in his debates with Douglas ; was lull ol scholarship, 
without pedantry ; skillful in debate as well as able ; and with his keen wit and inexhaustible 
humor was well calculated to influence the minds of men. Mr. Depew has always held the 
secret of entertaining his audiences, and so holding them together lor the more serious labor 
of convincing them by argument. But he is never dull. Always clear and comprehensive, his 
arguments are always logical, frequently superbly eloquent, and he is at all times terribly in 
earnest. The speaker who is thus in earnest can address his argument at once to the heart 
and the head ol his listener, establishing the double bond of sympathy and reason. 

In [86i Mr. Depew carried the Third Westchester Assembly District by 259 majority, 
although it was considered Democratic, and went to Albany as a member ol the Legislature. 
lie made an excellent legislator, and was re-elected, was prominently mentioned lor the 
Speakership and thereby made Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, which then, as 
now, carried with it the leadership of the majority of the Assembly. During part ot this 
session he was Speaker p<o ton., showing the honor and esteem in which he was held by his 
fellow legislators to he far beyond the warrant of his years or experience. The main impression 
ol his career at this time was that he had broad views, excellent judgment and honest regard 
for the interests of the people. I lis reputation spread over the State, and when he advocated 
certain measures for New York City, which were demanded by peculiar emergencies, he 
exhibited such characteristic earnestness and ability that the leading business men ol the 
metropolis tendered him a banquet in recognition of his efficient service. lie had found his 
opportunity for introduction to the commercial heart of the nation, and it served him so well 
that he became at once the subject of flattering eulogies, both public and private, while the 
press teemed with his praise, Horatio Seymour was Governor of New York, elected in 1862, 
hut the growing popularity of Mr. Depew encouraged tin; Republicans to think they could 
defeat the Democratic party. They nominated the young orator tor Secretary ol State in 
1863, and so aggressively did he enter upon his canvass that from start to finish it carried 
consternation to the ranks of his opponent, and he was elected by 30,000 majority. 1 he 
robust stature and perfect physical constitution with which Mr. Depew is endowed by nature 
were shown in this canvass to he capable of enormous endurance, lie spoke twice a day tor 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 



[9 



six consecutive weeks, yet never lost his freshness or vigor. ( )n the expiration of his term 
Mr. Depew declined a renomination, and again began to pick up the threads of his interrupted 
law practise Andrew Johnson, when President, had decided to make him Collector of the 
Port of New York, but on account ol a breach with Senator Morgan, who voted against 
sustaining his veto of the Civil Rights Bill, the President tore up Mr. Depew's commission, 
and the matter dropped. 

During the same Administration, and while William II. Seward was Secretary of State, 
the post ol Minister to Japan was offered Mr. Depew and he held the commission for four 
weeks, but finally determined to decline the position and retire from political life. It was 
a momentous decision, for he had shown eminent equipment for public affairs, and gave 
promise ot attaining high rank in statesmanship. The determining force was undoubtedl) 
the intimate friendship of William 11. Vanderbilt and the admiration of his talents by Com 
modore Vanderbilt. I lis return to the practise ol law was almost immediately signalized by 
favors from the Vanderbilts in the way ol his profession which enabled him to broaden his 
grasp of affairs and come into contact with the forces that were then moving the business 
concerns of the nation. In i S66 Mr. Depew was made attorney for the New York and 
Harlem Railroad Company. Three years later, when this road was consolidated with the 
New York Central to form the New York Central and Hudson Riser, with Commodore 
Vanderbilt at its head, he was appointed attorney of the new corporation, and shortly after 
ward was elected a member of the Board of Directors. Mis extending career since then has 
kept even pace with the enormous extension of the Vanderbilt system. With each new road 
that was brought tinder the same control his influence, jurisdiction and direction of their 
management has been widened. In 1S75 he was made general counsel lor the entire system 
and elected a director in each ol the roads comprising it. His railroad connection was further 
improved in 1SS2, when he was made second vice president ol the New York Central on the 
retirement of William II. Vanderbilt, and on the death ol President [ames II. Rutter, in 1885, 
he was made president, placing him at the head ol one ol the largest railroad corporations in 
the world, with unlimited wealth at his hack, and the confidence ol its owners in such degree 
that his influence is un circumscribed 

While thus climbing upward in this great executive sphere, Mr. Depew was still a factor 
in public affairs, from which he could not divorce himself as readily as he had anticipated. 
lie shared in the feeling of the large element of the Republican party, which organized under 
the name of Liberal Republicans in 1872, and ran for Lieutenant-Governor on the Greelej 
ticket in that year, but was defeated. In 1S74 the Legislature elected him a regent of the 
State University, and also one of the commissioners to build the State Capitol at Albany. 
Such labors as were involved by these appointments have seemed to come naturally to him 
b\ reason of his executive and administrative ability, which was so greal thai he was enabled 
to perform his duties faithfully in spite of the extraordinary demands upon him. 






50 HXCYCLOPjEDIA 

Probably the most interesting and exciting chapter in Mr. Depew's history was his 
candidacy for United States Senator in 1SX1, when Roscoe Conkling and Thomas C. Piatt 
resigned their seats on account of differences with President Garfield. He had yielded a 
reluctant assent to the use of his name by his friends, who regarded him as the man best of 
all others in the State qualified to succeed Mr. Conkling, if Mr. Conkling could not be his own 
successor, but he was presented tor Mr. Piatt's unexpired term. In this memorable contest 
Mr. Depew at different times received more than a majority of the Republican votes cast, 
which, under caucus action, would have fairly entitled him to carry off the honor. His 
equitable right to this recognition was demonstrated over and over again, but under the 
peculiar circumstances attending the contest it was found impossible to secure united 
Republican action, and the election was still undecided on that fateful morning of July ?d, 
when the country was thrilled with horror at the announcement of the assassination of 
President Garfield. Mr. Depew was first among the numerous candidates to see in that 
direful calamity the necessity for a speedy settlement of the Senatorial contests, and waiving 
his ambition tor the public good he sent a letter to the convention, withdrawing from the field. 
In his letter he said : — 

"Neither the State nor the party can afford to have New York unrepresented in the 
national councils. A threat crime has plunged the nation into sorrow, and in the midst of the 
prayers ami the tears of the whole people, supplicating for the recovery and weeping over 
the wound of the President, this partisan strife should cease." 

The Republican caucus which thereafter nominated Warner Miller, who was elected to 
succeed Mr. Piatt, was composed of only twelve more Republican members than the highest 
number of votes <_dven previously for Mr. Depew. Innumerable ballots had been cast, and 
his friends had stood by him with unflinching fidelity, enthusiastic devotion and unswerving 
loyalty. While he has always frankly avowed that he regarded the United States Senate as 
the goal of his ambition, Mr. Depew returned from this contest to his ordinary avocations 
without the slightest pique or disturbance of his serenity. He could see other honors in 
store for him, and in 1884 they had come in such showers that when Republicans of all factions 
in the Legislature, where they were in a two-thirds majority, tendered him the position, he was 
obliged on account ot his numerous trusts and business engagements to decline their support. 

In iSSS a large element in the Republican party looked upon Mr. Depew as the candi- 
date who could most successtully restore it to power in the National Government, from which 
it had been deposed four years previous. The Empire State presented his name to the con- 
vention at Chicago, where he received a handsome compliment of votes. Here, as in the 
memorable contest for Senator, Mr. Depew was first among the candidates to recognize the 
arrival of a period when longer struggle over the nomination was full of danger to the party, 
and with his withdrawal the political atmosphere was promptly cleared and New York's vote 
for Harrison made the Indiana statesman the standard bearer of 1888. In the campaign that 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 5 , 

followed Mr. Depew devoted several weeks to oratorial appeal to the voters of this State, and 
contributed measurably to the success that attended General Harrison's candidacy. It is 
scarcely a secret that he could have had a position in General Harrison's Cabinet if he would 
have accepted it. 

Allusion has been made to Mr. Depew's orations and addresses as demonstrating the 
solid thoughtfulness and high mental culture with which he is endowed. They have extended 
over a long period, and comprise, among others, these notable efforts: Address delivered at 
the centennial celebration of the formation of the State government at Kingston, New York, 
July 30, 1877; argument before the Assembly Committee on Railroads in opposition to the 
bill entitled, "An Act to Create a Board of Railroad Commissioners and to Regulate Their 
Powers," March 28, 1878; oration, Decoration Day, at the Academy of Music. New York, 
May 30, 1879 ; oration at the centennial of the capture of Major Andre at Tarrytown, New 
York, September 23, 1SS0; address at the unveiling of the statue of Alexander Hamilton in 
Central Park, New York, November 22, 1880; address at the memorial services of James A. 
Garfield, held under the auspices of the Grand Army of the Republic at Chickering Hall, New 
York, September 26, 1881 ; address before the annual convention of Psi Upsilon Societies of 
the various colleges in the United States, held at Syracuse, May 10, 1SN2 ; address before the 
graduating class of Columbia College Law School, at the Academy of Music, New York, May 
17, 1882 ; speech in response to the sentiment, "The Half Moon and the Mayflower," at the 
seventy-seventh anniversary celebration of the New England Society, at Delmonico's, New 
York, December 22, 1882 ; address on the " Liberty of the Press," before the New York State 
Press Association, at the Madison Square Theatre, New York, [une 19. 18S3 ; oration at the 
opening of the new building of the New York Produce Exchange, May 6, 1SS4 ; inaugural 
address as President of the Union League Club of New York, March 1, 1886. and second 
inaugural, March, 18S7 ; address at the laying of the corner-stone oi the college building given 
by William H. Yanderbilt to the College of Physicians and Surgeons, April 24, [886; the 
commemoration address at the dedication of Bartholdi's colossal statue, "Libert)' Enlightening 
the World," on Liberty Island, New York. October 28, 1886; memorial address before the 
New York Legislature for ex-President Chester A. Arthur, April 20, 1887 ; memorial address 
before the same body on ex-Governor Reuben E. Fenton, April 27, 18X7. Mr. Depew having 
been unanimously selected by the Legislature as their orator on both of these occasions; 
oration at the dedication of the Press Club monument in Cypress Hills Cemetery. June 12, 
1SS7 ; oration before the Society of the Army of the Potomac, June 22, 1887 ; speech on "The 
Young Men in Politics," at the Republican Club banquet at Delmonico's. February 12. 1NX7 ; 
address before the Irving Club of Tarrytown. New York, on "Washington Irving, the Father 
of American Literature," April 16, 18S7 : oration at the celebration of the birthday of 
Washington by the Union League Club of Chicago, "The Political Mission of the United 
States," February 22. r888; speech at the dinner to celebrate General Grant's birth, at 






5 2 LX CYCLOPAEDIA 

Delmonico's, April 27, 1888; address to the graduating class of Syracuse Medical College, 
"A Talk to Young Physicians," June 14. [888 : oration on "The Site of Federal Hall, New 
York City," on the one hundredth anniversary of the inauguration of President Washington, 
April 30, 1889; speech at Yale Alumni dinner, at Delmonico's, given to President Noah 
Porter on the occasion of his retirement, February 28, 1889; speech at dinner given In- 
Southern Society to Southern Governors, May 2, 1889; argument before the United States 
Senate Committee on " Ouadri-Centennial Celebration," January 11, 1890: speeches at 
Atlanta, Chattanooga and Knoxville, April, 1890; oration before the Chicago Press Club, in 
the Chicago Auditorium, on "The World's Fair," June 5, 1890. 

This list is incomplete, but it will serve to show the wide range of topics discussed by 
the noted orator, the extensive research and the ripe scholarship which have been involved in 
such labor, the profound thought necessary to their production, and the remarkable literary 
character that must have been displayed in them to gain for their author his acknowledged 
supremacy among the great orators of his time. It is in reading such ol these orations as 
have- been published in pamphlet or book form that the best estimate of Mr. Depew's charac- 
ter can be made. They show him to have the highest ideals of Christian manhood, unbounded 
faith in the people, and complete devotion to the elevation of the human race. 

In these orations and addresses Mr. Depew has founded a national forum, from which he 
speaks to 65,000,000 of people like an oracle, with the approval ol the wise and to the delight 
and instruction of the young. 

No sketch of Mr. Depew would be complete without giving some account of the various 
business and social organizations with which he is connected. He is president ol the New 
York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company, and likewise of the West Shore Railroad 
Company, and is a director of the Chicago and Northwestern, the Michigan Central, Cleve- 
land, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapolis; New York, Chicago and St. Louis; Boston ami 
Albany; Chicago. St. Paul, Minneapolis and Omaha, and the New York, New Haven and 
Hartford Railroad Companies. He is a regent of the University of the State ol New York, 
president of the well known and inlluential Union League Club of New York City, having 
been seven times elected to that position, and is now and has been tor many years the popu- 
lar leader and president of the- Yale Alumni Association. lb- is an active member ol the 
celebrated ''Skull and P.ones" of Yale College, and also of the St. Nicholas Society of New 
York, the Holland Society of New York and the Huguenot Society of America, lb- is a 
member of the New York Chamber of Commerce anil a director of the Union Trust Company 
of New York, the Western Union Telegraph Company, the Equitable Life Assurance Societ) 
and St. Luke's Hospital. He hail the degree of LL. D. conferred on him by Wale University, 
June 28, 18S7. 

In his home life Mr. Depew is exceptionally happy. He was married November 9. 1S71, 
to Elise Hegeman, and they have one child a son. The demands upon his time, both from his 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 53 

business affairs and his social friends, arc never allowed to become so imperative that he 
cannot devote a short time each clay to his wife and family, and it is in their companionship 
that his manhood takes on its largestdiearted character. Mr. Depew's household is further 
completed by Mrs Depew's mother, Mrs. W. A. Hegeman, and the two little orphan 
daughters of Mrs. Depew's talented brother, the late William A. Ogden Hegeman. 

It is sufficient to give Mr. Depew's life history and work, to sketch the man as he is 
known of his fellow-men and seen by his intimate associates, to present him as a Presidential 
candidate. He was the choice of New York Republicans for thai place in iSSS. and if 
circumstances had shaped themselves so that various States presented their favorite sons to 
the Convention of 1X92, he would have been unanimously presented by the New York 
delegation as altogether the fittest candidate that the party could have nominated. 

Col. Carson Lake. 




54 



ENCYCLOPAEDIA 



BRADLEY, JOSEPH P., LL. D.. Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the 
United States, was horn at Hern, Albany county, New York, March 14, 1813, Me 
was the eldest of eleven children. His father was Philo Bradley, and his mother 
was Mercy Gardner, whose father, Daniel Gardner, was a native of Newport, Rhode Island. 
Mis great-grandfather, Joseph Bradley, removed from Fairfield count}-, Connecticut, to Hern, 
in 1791 ; and his grandfather, Joseph Bradley, Jr., followed shortly after. They were descended 
from Francis Bradley, who emigrated from England, prior to 1 650, being in that year a member 
of the family of Governor Theophilus Eaton, in New Haven. Francis Bradley resided in 
Branford, 1657, and settled at Fairfield, 1660, where hi- married Ruth, daughter of John 
Barlow. From their eldest son, [ohn, the subject of this article was descended in direct line 
through his son, foseph, and the |osephs above mentioned. His ancestors in this country 
were all farmers, and Mr. Bradley, himself, was brought up on a farm in Bern until the age of 
nineteen, with only a common school education, except what he picked up by his own unassisted 
study. His father often taught school and was fond of reading, and had a collection of historical 
and scientific works. Of these young Bradley availed himself. 1 le was a great reader ot history, 
memoirs and travels, and was very fond of mathematics, having acquired a knowledge of algebra, 
trigonometry and surveying while but a mere youth. He practiced surveying amongst the people 
of the vicinity. At sixteen he commenced teaching school, and followed that pursuit for 
several months of each year until he entered college. But it was his greatest delight to 
rummage the town library, which was kept by a relative near by, and to make occasional visits 
to Albany, and to spend a few days in the State Library. In his visits to the latter place he 
first got a taste for the legal profession, from hearing that great jurist, John C. Spencer, explain 
the provisions of the Revised Statutes as they were being reviewed and amended in the 
I louse of Assembly. 

In December, [831, having become tired of country life, he started, with a few dollars in 
his pocket for New York, to seek some position, as clerk or otherwise, by which he might 
better his fortunes ; but, on arriving at Albany, he found the 1 ludson nearly closed with ice 
and the last steamboat out in the stream for fear of being fro/en up at the wharf, and 
inaccessible. He returned home disappointed ; but almost the first man he met at the village 
where he left the stage was Rev. A. II. Myers, who had just become the local minister, and 
who, knowing Bradley, and learning his views, gave him a pressing invitation to reside at the 
parsonage and prepare for college. This invitation was accepted, and in March, 1S32, he 
entered upon a course of Latin and Greek and made very rapid progress. In September, 
1833, he entered Rutgers College, New Jersey, where he graduated in 1856. After 
superintending an academy at Millstone for a short time, in November, 1836, he entered the 
office of Archer Gifford, Esq., of Newark, New Jersey, and commenced the study of law. 
Three years later he was admitted to the bar. 





'-^^ 67°/y<7^*£ l 




OF BIOGRAPHY. 



55 



In May, 1840, he commenced the practise of law in Newark, in connection with [ohn P. 
Jackson, Esq., who was then Secretary and Attorney of the New [ersey Railroad Company, 
and continued in partnership with him tor four or five years. He was thus early initiated in 
railroad litigation, which formed an important portion of his practise whilst he remained 
at the bar. 

In October, 1S44, Mr. Bradley married Mary, the youngest daughter of Chief |ustice 
Hornblower, and they had seven children, of whom two sons and two daughters reached 
maturity. 

From his earliest professional experience Mr. Bradley was largely engaged in litigated 
and often important causes, requiring careful study and preparation. His practise included 
almost every branch of the law, involving land titles, ripari m rights, patents for inventions, 
corporate powers, railroad liabilities, and equity and criminal jurisprudence. The legal 
system of New Jersey preserved, in great degree, the English model, adapted to the changed 
forms of social and political organization, and somewhat simplified in matter of form and 
detail. The system of equity was always administered in a separate chancery court, and the 
forms of common law actions and of pleading were in the main preserved. In the study of 
this system Mr. Bradley acquired an accurate and familiar knowledge of common law 
and equity, which was of great service to him in his subsequent career as a judge of the 
highest court in the country. And he also gave considerable attention to the civil law, not as 
a matter ot practical application, but as furnishing the principles and grounds of many 
departments of the common law. He was always fonder of reading and study than of the 
bustle of active life; although his professional engagements and business connections 
constantly dragged him away from his more cherished pursuits. In the most active period of 
his life his happiest moments were those in which he could get away into some retired corner 
and busy himself in literary or scientific investigations ; or peradventure in some one of the 
masterpieces of fiction. In his early years he was very fond of poetry, and was always 
addicted to philosophical speculation, as well as to the physical and mathematical sciences. 

Mr. Bradley was an early contributor to the press. He spent the entire winter of 1S41 
in Trenton reporting the proceedings of the Legislature lor the Newark . Idverliser, ami main- 
taining a regular correspondence with that journal, which was edited by his friend the I Ion. 
William B. Kinney For man)' years his contributions to the columns ot the Advertiser ami 
other papers were frequent and always acceptable. He was also frequently called upon to 
make addresses of various kinds. In [849 he delivered an address before the literarj societies 
of Rutgers College on the subject of "Progress, its Grounds and Possibilities," which was 
much commended by the public press. In 1X51 he delivered an address before the New 
Jersey Historical Society on the " Hangers to which the American Union has been Exposed," 
which was published in the Society Proceedings. In 1S05 he delivered an address before the 
same society on the "Life and Services of Hon. Win. L. Dayton." In 1868 he delivered a 



5 6 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

series of lectures on law in Rutgers College. In 1S70 he delivered the Centennial Address 
of Rutgers College, containing a history of that institution and a notice ol some ot its prin- 
cipal patrons and graduates. In 187c) he read a memoir of Professor Theodore Strong of 
Rutgers College before the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, reviewing Dr. 
Strong's various mathematical investigations. In [884 he delivered an address on "Law as 
the Bond of Civil Society" before the Law Department of the University of Pennsylvania, 
and in 1886 he contributed articles on "Government" and "Law" to the Encyclopaedia 
Americana, published in Philadelphia as a supplement to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. 

These are but a portion of Mr. Bradley's efforts in occasional literature ot this sort. 

1 lis well-known mathematical accomplishments induced the Mutual Benefit Lite Insurance 
Company of Newark in 1851 to secure his services as superintending mathematician or 
actuar_\', which position, notwithstanding his numerous professional engagements, he continued 
to till for eleven years. 

In 1849 Mr. Bradley became connected professionally with the Delaware and Raritan 
Canal and Camden and Amboy Railroad Companies, then and for main years the leading 
corporation of the State. 

At the breaking out of the Rebellion in 1861, his influence was very efficiently exerted in 
inducing the railroad company to place its lines and rolling stock at the service ot the Govern- 
ment without raising any question about compensation, which was left to be settled afterwards. 
When the news of the firing on Fort Sumter was received it was a question with the officers 
of the company what ought to be done. Mr. Bradley gave it as his decided opinion that not 
only patriotism but the true interest of the companies required that they should give the 
Government every possible aid. This advice was followed, not only at the beginning of but 
throughout the war. 

In politics Mr. Bradley was a Whig, but after the Whig party was dissolved became a 
moderate Republican. He took very little part in public affairs, however, until the Southern 
States began to secede from the Union. From that time he was pronounced in his views, and 
earnest in the cause, firmly believing in the treason of secession, and in the right, as well as 
duty, of the Federal Government to preserve its own authority and the integrity ot the L nited 
States as an undivided country. In 1862, he was induced, against his wishes, to run tor 
Congress without any expectation of success, as the district was strongly Democratic, and the 
Republican cause was at that time depressed by a succession of military disasters. Of course 
he was defeated. This was the only occasion on which he was a candidate for political 
preferment, except that of running on the Republican electoral ticket in 1868. 

In December, 1869, Mr. Justice Grier sent in his resignation as Associate Justice of the 
Supreme Court of the United States, to take effect on the first of February, ami accompanied 
it with a letter to President Grant, strongly recommending Mr. Bradley as his successor without 
the hitter's knowledge ; but Secretary Stanton having expressed a wish for the office, it was. 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 57 

with Mr. Bradley's cordial acquiescence, conferred upon him. On Mr. Stanton's death, soon 
after, two vacancies were to be filled, and in February, 1870, the President nominated Mr. 
Bradley and Judge Strong to fill them. The latter being- first confirmed was allotted to the 
third circuit, comprising New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, so that when Mr. Bradley 
was confirmed he was allotted to the fifth circuit, composed of Georgia and the five Gulf 
States. This was, at that time, the most important circuit in the country, the whole territory 
having just emerged from the rebellion, and almost every cause bristling with new questions 
arising out of its abnormal condition. 

Justice Bradley entered upon his official duties with an express determination to do exact 
justice to all without discrimination ol persons or parties, and it is believed that during the 
eleven years that he presided on the Southern Circuit his conduct as a judge gave universal 
satisfaction. He was constantly met by questions of difficulty arising out of the exigencies 
of the war, or upon the new laws and amendments of the Constitution which had been recently 
adopted, and in most cases his decisions were sustained by the Supreme Court. The general 
principle by which he was governed in determining the validity and binding effect of public 
and private transactions in the South, during the war, was thus expressed in his opinion in the 
case of Lockhart vs. Horn, 1 Woods' Rep., 636: "As a general rule, in my judgment, all 
transactions, judgments and decrees which took place in conformity with existing laws in the 
Confederate States between the citizens thereof, during the late war, except such as were 
directly in aid of the rebellion, ought to stand good. The exception, namely, of such trans- 
actions as were directly in aid of the rebellion, is a political necessity required by tin- dignity 
of the United States Government, and by every principle of fidelity to the Constitution and 
laws of our common country." This principle was expressly affirmed by the Supreme Court 
in the same case on appeal (17 Wall., 570). 

In the case of U. S. vs. Cruikshank and Others, arising under the Enforcement Act of 1 
Justice Bradley held that those sections of the act which undertook to prohibit and punish 
conspiracies and assaults were not authorized by the new constitutional amendments ; that 
ordinal')- offenses against the peace are within the jurisdiction of the States alone: and that 
Congress has merely the power, by legislation, to correct the unconstitutional acts of the 
States, and not the acts of the individuals. This construction of the effect of the Fourteenth 
Amendment was of the highest importance, and was fully approved and adopted by the 
Supreme Court. (See U. S. vs. Cruikshank, 1 Wood's Rep., 308; same case on review, 92 
U.S., 542). 

The decision relates only to ordinary conspiracies and breaches ol the peace, and do 
not deny to Congress the right to pass laws for the preservation of order at elections of 
Representatives and the like, in which case it has express power over tin entire subject. 
The existence of the latter power is shown and adjudged in Ex parte Sicbold, 100 U. S., 371, 
where the opinion was also written by Justice Bradley. 

5 



ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

As a member of the Supreme Court for the twenty-two years he was on the bench. 
Justice Bradley took a prominent part in the decisions of that high tribunal, and some 
of its most important opinions have been written by him. Amongst these may be mentioned 
his opinions on admiralty and maritime law, relating to admiralty jurisdiction and the limited 
liability of ship-owners ;* on railroad law, in relation to the invalidity of contracts made to 
screen common carriers from their own negligence ;f on the law o\ patents, in relation to the 
frauds practiced in obtaining illegal reissues ;J on the Civil Rights Act, and the true con- 
struction of the Fourteenth Amendment ;^ on the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court in cases 
of habeas cot pus, Ex parte Parks, 93 U. S., 18 ; Ex parte Siebold, 100 U. S., 371; and on the 
constitutional immunity of the citizen from the seizure, or compulsory production ot his 
papers to he used as evidence against him, or to establish the forfeiture ot his goods, Boyd 

vs. r. .v., 1 16 u. s., 616. 

In his judicial opinions. Justice Bradley never aimed at ornament, but apparently sought 
to set forth his views in the plainest, briefest and chastest words, backed by irrefragable logic. 
The ease, however, with which the conclusion seemed to be reached, furnishes but slight indica- 
tion of the care and pains taken with the composition. When not too much hurried by the 
business of the Court, the file was so assiduously applied that nothing but the framework of the 
argument and the necessary fitting of the parts were left. 

In one important case Justice Bradley disagreed with the majority of the Court, in which 
he was joined by several other justices. 'This was the Slaughter House Cases (so called), 16 
Wall., 36. The question had been before him in the circuit, in Louisiana ami was this, 
namely, whether a legislative grant to a corporate company of the exclusive right to have 
stock landings and slaughter houses in New Orleans and vicinity (a district of 1,200 square 
miles) was repugnant to tin- Fourteenth Amendment, as abridging the privileges and immu- 
nities of other citizens, and denying to them the equal protection of the laws. Justice Bradley 
held that such a monopoly of a lawful occupation was repugnant to the amendment, and 
Chief [ustice Chase and Justices Swayne and Field agreed with him ; but a bare majority of 
the Court held the contrary. The correctness of the decision has been very much questioned. 
Reference should also be made to the three important opinions of the Court delivered by him 
in what will doubtless be leading cases, viz.: Haus vs. Louis, 134 U. S., i, settling the point 
that a State cannot be sued by an individual ; McGahey vs. Virginia, 135 U. S., 662. announc- 
ing the final and unanimous determination >A' the Supreme Court in the Virginia Bond cases; 
ami Mormon Church vs. United States, 136 U. S., 1, deciding that the devotion of charitable 
property to an illegal use makes it amenable to legislative administration. 

* Norwich Co. vs. Wright, 13 Wall., 104; The Loltamana, 21 Wall., 55S ; The Scotland, 105 V. S-, 24 ; /'/<>:•. and X. >'. Steamship 

(',1. vs. Hill Manufacturing Co., 109 U. S. t 578; ami Place vs. Norwich Co., 11S U. S., . 

, V >. Central A'. /.'. Co. *s. Lockwood, 17 Wail., 357 

I Miller vs. Brass Co., 104 I'. S., 350; fames vs. Campbell, ii, ;;i ; Mahn vs Harwood, iij I'. S., 360. 
I Rights Cases, 109 U. S., 3. 



OF BIOGRAPHY. sg 

Justice Bradley, much against his wish, was appointed a member of the Electoral Commis 
sion which determined the presidential election in February, 1877. All the other members of the 
Commission, seven Democrats and seven Republicans, had been selected by the two parties 
respectively; hut Justice Bradley's appointment was made by the two Democratic and two 

Republican justices already named as members in the law. lie was, therefore, in some sort 
regarded as an umpire, and his decision was looked for with the greatest interest, and when 
made met with the most undeserved opprobrium from the losing party. 1 lis course was 
marked by the most earnest desire to reach a fair and just decision; and no one can read his 
opinions in the Commission without acknowledging that he had strong reasons for his conclu- 
sion. The main question was whether Congress has constitutional power to re-canvass the 
State election of the presidential electors. Justice Bradley held that it has not such power, 
and that the possession of such a power would be very dangerous to the liberties of the 
country. It is known that his views were approved by some very eminent jurists of the 
Democratic party. 

When the writer, then a lately licensed attorney, first personally knew Mr. Bradley 
he had been ten years or thereabouts in practise and was one of the most noted lawyers in 
the State. In respect of intellectual ability or sheer power of thinking his reputation was 
pre-eminent. Few, if any, important causes were tried in the Fssex Circuit wherein he was 
not of counsel. Less esteemed for popular oratory than some others, he was deemed 
superior in legal learning and power as a reasoner. 1 lis distinction in these particulars was 
not confined to arguments addressed to the bench. The lucid, consecutive manner of his 
statement of facts, and of the inferences from them was effective with juries. Plain men 
listened to him with pleasure, and were pretty sure to give him their verdict where it was atall 
due. The young lawyers who had his aid in the trial of causes, or his counsel in Chambers, 
seldom failed to observe and to comment on the thorough analysis to which the matter 
in hand was subjected. Their association with him was educational ; a disciplinary process, 
often taxing their industry and faculties to the utmost. He seemed habitually bent on 
developing the principles and ransacking the learning applicable to the question in dispute is 
much as on carrying his side ol it. IF' was the opposite ot a pro hac vice practitioner. 

Those who, like the writer, have been to some degree cognizant of fudge Bradley's 
range of intellectual pursuits, look upon it as phenomenal. When the well-known legal 
acquirements that so eminently distinguished him in his high station are considered it was 
marvelous to know that he was familiarly at home in elegant literature, history, philosophy, 
physical science, theology and mathematics. In the latter, his complete mastery of principles 
and expertness in details, from the elementary parts to the most difficult methods "I the 
Calculus, were such as few professors in that field possess. I lis special aptitude in 
this respect is understood to have been inherited from his mother, and amounted indispu 
tably to genius. 



6o ENCYCLOPEDIA 

One of the most distinctive of his mental traits, and a dominant one in his intellectual 
processes, was an instinctive aiming for the truth in whatever subject engaged his thoughts, 
making him in his manifestations while at the bar judicial rather than forensic, impeding his 
efforts as an advocate where the side he was supporting did not command the approval ot his 
judgment, but making his advocacy overmastering where it did. 

Another distinguishing characteristic was his patience of labor. Mis power of long- 
continued application was conspicuous in boyhood as it has been in his subsequent life. The 
late Secretary Frelinghuysen, who knew him longer and more intimately, perhaps, than any 
other man, was often heard to speak of this faculty of tireless investigation as surpassing any 
example of it he had ever known. The exhibition of this habit by illustrative instances, of 
which his remarkable life was full, would of itself, aside from all other attractive features, 
make any adequate biographical memoir most interesting and instructive. The physical 
constitution of the Judge was of the firmest, most enduring kind. To this constitutional 
vigor he owed his immense and lifelong capacity for work, for attainments and achievements 
which, together with varied mental endowments of the highest order, long classed him 
among the most remarkable of the eminent men our country has produced. 

|udge Joseph P. Bradley died at his residence, on I street, in Washington, D. C, at 6.15 
o'clock on the morning of January 22, 1892. His death was not unexpected, as it had been 
known for some months past that this distinguished jurist was far from being a well man, an 
attack of the grip the previous spring having left him in a much debilitated condition, from 
which he seemed unable to rally during the summer months. His trouble began again in 
November, when he caught a slight cold which, coupled with his enfeebled condition, made 
great inroads into his strength, and during a greater part of that term of the Supreme Court 
he was unable to be present at its daily sessions. 

It was only about a week previous to his death, however, that his health became such as 
to seriously alarm his family and friends, though it was not expected that any fatal results 
would follow so soon as they did. Every effort was made by his three attending physicians 
to restore his health and strength, but cold, damp weather, together with his declining years, 
which, in a great measure retarded any progress toward recovery, proved too great a strain 
for his system to overcome, and death resulted. He was buried in the family burying ground 
at Newark, New Jersey. 





gW* //.? 6(£l 






OF BIOGRAPHY. Ci 



% -J UBBARD, JOHN, ex-Governor of .Maine. Prominent among those who have 
V ■ deserved well ol their fellow-citizens and the State is [ohn Hubbard. Eminent 
^^~ U in his profession and untiring in its generous exercise, he had the good fortune, 
through a long life, to render as a citizen unusual service to the community in 
which he lived. Warmly attached to the principle of government by the people, and well 
equipped for their service, he was permitted in public office to contribute much to that moral 
and material development of his own State which has made her influence felt in strengthening 
ami perpetuating the Republic. His life well illustrates the beneficent results of our republican 
government, which, by opening every career to all her sons, inspires their ambition, and impels 
them to qualify themselves for all careers ; and which, to requite her generosity, has always 
hosts of her sons well qualified to serve her in times of crises or in times of routine. 

John Hubbard was born in the town of Readfield, in the State of Maine, on March 22, 
1794. His parents moved to that town from their native State of New Hampshire in 1 7S4. 
Maine was then a province of Massachusetts, and they were among the pioneers in the 
district of their adoption. 

His mother, Olive Wilson, was born in Brentwood, New Hampshire, in 1761, and was 
a woman ot marked individuality of character. Her removal to Maine was soon after her 
marriage. She died October 20, 1S47, at the advanced age of eighty-six years. 

His father, John Hubbard, whose name he bore, was born in Kingston, New Hampshire, 
in 1 759, and, like his father, was a physician. On removing to Maine he took with him his 
widowed mother, Joanna Hubbard, who died there in 1807, in the seventy-fifth year of her age. 
His death occurred April 22, 1838. His life was the laborious one of a country doctor in a 
new and sparsely-settled country, where journeys are long and receipts small, and often the 
thanks ot the patient are the only reward for services. In such a community almost every 
man adds the occupation of farmer to his other pursuits, and Dr. Hubbard was no exception 
to this rule. For the greater part of his life he carried on a farm, which, as his sons grew to 
be young men, was committed to their care. He was esteemed in his profession as a practi- 
tioner of skill and sound judgment. He occupied also a prominent position in the community 
where he lived, and at one time represented his district in the Legislature or General Court 
of Massachusetts. But his health failed near middle-life ; his accumulations of property were 
lost or spent, and he was unable to give his large family much aid in obtaining education more 
complete than that afforded by the common schools. 

There had been twelve children in this family — eight daughters and lour sons. Of these, 
two died in childhood. 

John, named for his father, was the eldest son. As a boy he was remarkable for 
extraordinary physical strength and activity. These qualities were often tested in the 
wrestling matches and rough athletic spurts that served as a recreation lor the boys ol that 



62 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

day, and on several occasions availed to rescue from drowning his less powerful or expert 
companions. Above all, he was conspicuous then, as always, lor independence and 
frankness of character, and tor absolute sincerity. His physical activity was early 
turned to account in the cultivation ot his father's farm, which was put under his management 
when he was a mere boy. This labor, however, encroached upon the time which he felt could 
more profitably lie given to the cultivation of his mind. At sixteen years of age the only 
instruction he had received was at the district schools in the winter months, and during 
an attendance of ten months at an academy. But already he had marked out for himself a 
life in which his talents might be turned to better account than in the course which seemed to 
lie before him. He had considered with appreciative thought the opportunities for 
usefulness afforded by a government that knows no privileged class. He had also discovered 
that where the only obstacle to success is competition, he who would attain success must be 
equipped to compete. And he had rightly decided that the best equipment is good mental 
training and a thorough education. So when, at tin- age of sixteen, his father, unable to aid 
him in obtaining a liberal education at any of the centres of learning, proposed that he should 
divide his time between the work on the farm and the study of medicine at home with his 
father, he declined the proposal, for the reason that he needed a more thorough education as 
the foundation for a professional superstructure, ami that until the foundation was determined 
he could not decide what the edifice should be. 

Following the course on which he had resolved, he devoted such time as he could obtain 
in the intervals of labor to the study of mathematics and languages, without aid or instruction, 
and thus continued tor three years longer to carry on the farm. 

In the fall of 1813, then in his twentieth year, having decided that duty to himself as well 
as his family recpiired the step, he left home. I lis equipment for making his own way in the 
world was an abundant force of mind and character, robust health, and ample hope. 
His property was limited to fifteen dollars, and a horse given him by his father, who could 
afford no ampler outfit. 

Thus furnished, he rode across the country to Hanover, New I [ampshire ; resolved first 
to know the requiremi nts for entering Dartmouth College, and then to set about the work 
of complying with them. 

From Dartmouth he rode to Albany, New York, where he made an engagement as 
instructor in a private family residing near the city. Here he continued until the following 
summer, and used his time so well that, besides discharging his duties as instructor, to the 
eminent satisfaction of his pupils and their parents, he had completed the preparatory studies, 
and those of the first and second college years, so far that he was then able to enter Dart- 
mouth in 1 Si 4 as a member of the Class of 1816, in the third term of the sophomore year. 

He graduated with his class in 1816, maintaining a front rank, and especially distinguish- 
ing himself in the department of mathematics. 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 63 

Depending wholly upon his own exertions, he was compelled to teach during a portion 
of his college years, and was necessarily somewhat in debt at the end of his course. This 
circumstance — not usual, nor attending the course of self-supporting students alone — is not 
disheartening when the debt is an investment in the mind's culture, and when, as is always 
true in such cases, the debtor means to pay. 

With resolution nowise abated, John Hubbard again applied himself to teaching, in order 
to discharge his obligations, and to obtain the money needed to educate himself for the medi- 
cal profession, to which at this time he had finally decided to devote the labor of his life. 

With this in view he taught, as principal, the academy at Hallowell, Maine, for about two 
years, and afterwards taught in Virginia for about the same length of time. Never diverted 
from his settled purpose by delays or obstacles, he was able, in 1820, to enter upon a thorough 
course of medical study at the Philadelphia Medical School, of the University of Pennsylvania, 
which afforded the best opportunities for the special instruction he desired. Mere he remained 
for two years, securing his diplomas as doctor of medicine and as fellow of the Philadelphia 
Medical School in April, 1822. 

Immediately afterward he returned to Virginia, where as a teacher he had made many warm 
friends, and there, in Dinwiddie count)-, he commenced the practise of his profession, lie 
remained in Virginia in successful practise seven years, until 1829, when he determined to 
change his residence, in part from considerations oi health, but chiefly because he preferred 
for his children the atmosphere anil influences ol a tree State. 

He always referred in terms of warm attachment to Virginia, for ten years and more the 
State of his adoption, and he retained till the close ot his life altectionate remembrance of the 
friendships he had formed during his long residence there, lint the phases of his life had 
somewhat changed since that residence began. 

In July, 1825, he had married Miss Sarah H. Barrett, of Dresden, Maine. Q§e child 
born of this marriage hail died in Virginia ; one, a daughter, remained. The brother ot I )r. 
Hubbard nearest his own age, to whom he was ardently attached, and whose name in after life 
he never mentioned save in terms of deepest affection and with evident emotion, had also 
died. This brother, Thomas, had followed John to Virginia, had studied medicine, and had 
entered upon its practise with promise of unusual success, when in August, 1827 at the age 
of thirty-two, he fell a victim to disease in Surrey county, Virginia. 

The parents of husband and wife were still living in their native State, and in their 
advanced age needed the attentions of which distance and the delays ot communication inci- 
dent to that time deprived them. 

Urged by these considerations. Dr. Hubbard decided to make his home at the North, 
and, before completing the change, to spend a year in the medical schools and hospitals of 
Philadelphia, to perfect his skill as an anatomist and surgeon, and to add increased scientific 
attainments in special directions to the knowledge already acquired by his years oi study and 



64 ENCYCLOPEDIA 

practise. It was in keeping with the character ol the man that he should wish to excel in his 
chosen profession, and should insist upon attaining the most thorough knowledge of whatever 

he professed to know. 

His motive is best described by a sentence written at this time to his wife, who, with their 
young daughter, was necessarily separated from him during this additional period of advanced 

student life. Referring to their separation and to a book Mrs. Hubbard had recommended 
him to read, he writes: "My time is so occupied in medical studies as to leave me little leisure 
or inclination to read anything else. Lectures are now going on. I am also engaged much 
in the dissecting-rooms. I think my stay here will give me great advantage in the knowledge 
and treatment of disease, especially diseases ot the chest, such as pleurisies, lung fevers, con- 
sumption, etc. Should it he the means of enabling me to save one life which would otherwise 
have been lost, I shall be amply repaid, at least in feeling." 

The temporary separation ended in 1830, when Dr. Hubbard took up his residence at 
I [allowell, Maine, a point nearly equidistant between the home ol his wile's parents and his 
own. Here he remained lor the rest of his life; constantly occupied, though in one of the 
cpiietest of small New England cities ; constantly caring tor others, though in a community of 
people eminently able, as are most natives of New England, to care for themselves. This 
resulted from his disposition, and not from any supineness on the part of his neighbors. 1 lis 
matured powers, his large experience, his vigorous intellect, and his immense energy of bod) 
and of mind, gave him, almost from the outset, a leading professional standing, not only in 
his immediate neighborhood, but throughout the State. His love for his profession and his 
desire to use it lor the greatest public good led him to respond to all calls, and his great 
generosity made him heedless of compensation. For a long series ot years he was driving 
over the country distances of twenty, fifty and seventy miles from his home, attending his own 
patients, or in consultation with his brothers in the profession. A part ot this period was 
before the days of easy railroad communication, and hut tew ot his objective points could at 
any time he reached by rail as rapidly as by his own conveyance. He kept four horses con- 
stantly in use making his professional calls, and upon his longer routes hired relays. This, it 
must be remembered, was in a country where one horse with a gig or light wagon was the 
traveler's equipage, and it represented, in addition to his office work, an amount ot labor that 
must severely tax the strongest physique. His lite was that ot the country doctor, hut 
eminently a lite ol action. Hence, although his tame extended, within his own profession, far 
beyond his State; although he kept well abreast ot the advance in medical science, and. by 
correspondence and constant examination of medical literature in its periodical and its perma- 
nent form, avoided that isolation from professional centres which is often the country 
doctor's late ; although he was made member of medical societies far and near, ami his opinions 
wire quoted, and his treatment of certain forms of disease followed in places remote from his 
home, there remains but meagre record ol his great professional work ami worth. He used 



OF BIOGRAPHY. r,- 

his science and his art to cure the sick, rather than to formulate new rules by which others 
might effect the cure, lie waged successful war upon disease, leaving others to record for 
the benefit of science the history of the warfare. I [e spent himself to prolong the life of the 
sufferer, hut did not chronicle the suffering of the patient to perpetuate his own tame. 

So, like Homer's heroes who are forgotten while Homer's name is immortal, his heroic 
acts, even if they had been chronicled by others in the literature of his profession, would soon 
pass into oblivion. 

His most valued record was always found in the grateful hearts of those he cured ; in the 
confidence of many who trusted him so that the sense of healing entered their sick-rooms with 
his presence ; in tiie lasting recognition of many, who, down to the latest days of his life 
would have no other physician, and would not willingly believe that any save Dr. Hubbard 
could properly treat a dangerous cast-. 

That he exposed himself without reserve to disease as well as to toil, is matter of course. 
That he served without regard to compensation or the ability of his patient to make it, is like- 
wise true. 

Though devoted to his profession and engrossed with its labors, Dr. Hubbard had always 
been an attentive observer of public affairs, and ardently attached to those principles of true 
government by whose aid he knew that, in this country, of all others, ever)- man might rise to 
the level of his merit. His convictions led him to unite with the Democratic part)- in Maine, 
although selt-interest would have counselled association with the Whigs, then in the ascendancy. 
But in the opinion of Dr. Hubbard the Democratic part)' kept clearest in the foreground, 
and was itself most earnestly committed to the principles, vital to the Republic, absolute 
equality of all citizens, unchanging opposition to all preferences of privileges of class, and 
perfect loyalty to the Constitution of the United States. In his mind, and to quote his 
language, the democratic spirit was "the spirit of the Pilgrim Fathers, the spirit of the people 
rising against all arbitrary power, whether monarchical or aristocratic, or in whatever form ; 
against all factitious power and privilege, whether in the shape ot moneyed or political aristoc- 
racies, the enemy of the spirit of exclusiveness ; the steadfast opponent of privileged orders ; 
the constant advocate of equal personal liberty, and the equal rights of all citizens before 
the laws." 

The just limitation of this spirit of liberty he found in a strict, honest, and fair 
construction of the Constitution of the United States, by the application ot sound common 
sense to its several provisions, without any technical refinements or sublimated moral 
speculations ; conceding to every State, slave or free, the rights which she possessed, either 
in territory or otherwise, as an independent sovereignty, before entering into the Union, and 
which were not surrendered by the Constitution ; and securing to ever) State the grants of 
power or privilege awarded to it by the Constitution. Such he believed to be the spirit th.it 
quickened, and the covenants that controlled, the Democratic party, and with this belief he felt 



66 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

that only the I >emocratic party could preserve the Constitution, and at the same time maintain 
the freedom of the people. 

In 1843, quite unexpectedly to himself. Dr. Hubbard was elected to the Senate of Maine, 
though his <>\\n was one of the strongest Whig districts. Without previous experience as a 
legislator or practise as a debater, he immediately took a prominent position in the Senate, 
and at once applied himself with his accustomed energy to the business before him, sparing 
no pains to obtain a thorough knowledge of the varied matters which came up for discussion. 
He seldom addressed the Senate at length, but when he participated in the debates lie always 
commanded attention l>y a compact ami logical presentation of the question at issue, and by 
a frank and independent expression ot his views. 

During the session of [843 an earnest effort was made to procure the passage through 
the Maine Legislature of an act obstructing the execution of what was known as the Fugitive 
Slave Law of 1793. Petitions for such an act were presented and the act was formulated. 
The leaders of the Whig party generally favored this effort, and many Democrats were also 
inclined to promote it. Dr. Hubbard was appointed chairman of a joint select committee to 
whom petitions praying for these enactments were referred. While then, as always, an enemy 
to slavery, he considered that by the terms of the Constitution and the Acts of Congress passed 
in the early days of the Republic, it had been accepted as one of the necessary conditions of a 
union of the States, and that it could only be removed by a process of gradual emancipation 
and with the concurrence of the slave-holding States. He deemed that to pass the act and 
grant the petitions would involve a violation of the solemn compact embraced in the Constitu- 
tion of the United States ; that such a course could not he expedient, because it could not be 
honorable, and that it was fraught with imminent danger to the peace of the country. He 
labored successfully to impress these views upon his associates, and a majority of them agreed 
in a concise and well-reasoned report drawn up by him and presented to the Senate, in which 
wen- strongly stated the evil results likely to follow such a policy on the part of the Free States. 
This report was adopted by the Senate, which also rejected the act in question, which had 
passed tlie I louse of Representatives by a decided majority. 

It was largely due to the inlluence of Mr. Hubbard that the State ol Maine at this early 
period refused to put upon her statute book an act which would he construed as a determination 
to a iolate her obligations under the Constitution of the United States, ami was able consistently 
to insist upon the inviolability ol the federal compact and the preservation ot the Union, while 
abating nothing in her opposition to the system of involuntary servitude. Her forbearing 
devotion to the Constitution under the stress of great provocation added force to her indig- 
nant protest in later years against the Kansas outrages and the Lecompton Constitution. 

The great question, of which these resolutions of 1843 exhibit one phase, has passed into 
history, and the passions it excited are allayed. This is not the occasion to follow in detail its 
origin ami growth. But it must he rgmgmbered that in [843 the differences between North 



OF BfOGRAPHY. 67 

and South had not been recognized as an "irrepressible conflict." It was the prevailing 
timent in the North that slavery was a wrong to hum inity and should < ease. < >f the gn af 
number who held this opinion, some deemed the wrong so great that no considerations arising 
from the relations of the States under the Federal Constitution should be allowed to delay its 
immediate suppression. Others held that the Constitution was a solemn agreement, binding 
every State which received its benefits to comply with its terms ; that the Northern States 
could not honorably violate any one of its provisions, and that to keep their compact was a 
stronger obligation than to contend for an instant emancipation of the slaves. They believi 'I. 
too, that emancipation was sure to arrive in due time by peaceful methods. 

The opinion of these was voiceil l>\ .Mr. [efferson, when, in 1820, he wrote to [ohn 
Holmes, the Senator from Maine, his memorable letter at the time Missouri was admitted to 
the Union as a Slave State, under the compromise which fixed the parallel of 36 30' as the 
line of demarcation between freedom and slavery. 

" I had for a long time ceased," he wrote, " to read newspapers or pay any attention to 
public affairs, confident they were in good hands, and content to be a passenger in our bark 
to the shore from which I am not distant. But this momentous question, like a fire bell in the 
night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. 
It is hushed, indeed, for a moment. But this is a reprieve only ; not a final sentence. A 
geographical line coinciding with a marked principle, moral and political, once conceived ami 
held up to the angry passions of men, will never be obliterated, and every new irritation will 
make it deeper and deeper. I can say with conscious truth, that there is not a man on earth 
who would sacrifice more than I would to relieve us from this heavy reproach in any 
practicable way. The cession of that kind of property, for so it is misnamed, is a bagatelle 
which would not cost me a second thought, if in that way a general emancipation and 
expatriation could be effected ; and gradually and with due sacrifices I think it might be. But 
as it is, we have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him nor safely let him go. 
Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other. ( )f one thing I am certain, that as 
the passage of slaves from one State to another would not make a slave of a single human 
being who would not be so without it, so their diffusion over a greater surface would make 
them individually happier and proportionally facilitate the accomplishment of their emancipation 
by dividing the burden on a greater number of coadjutators." 

"I regret that I am now to die in the belief that the useless sacrifice "I themselves by 
the generation of 1776 to acquire self-government and happiness t" their country is to be 
thrown away by the unwise and unworthy passions ol their sons, and that mj only consolation 
is to be that I live not t.> weep over it. If the) would but dispassionately weigh the blessings 
they will throw away, against an abstract principle more likely to be affected l>v union than 
scission, they would pause before they would perpetrate this at I ol sui< ide on themselves and 
of treason against the hopes of the world." 



68 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

Such was the spirit of the report, which reasoned that the act prayed for was contrary to 
that provision of the Constitution which declares that persons held to service in one State 
escaping into another shall not be discharged from such service, but shall be delivered up on 
claim of the party to whom such service may be due, and that therefore the request to pass 
the act was in effect a proposal to violate the Constitution and to dissolve the Union. 

But Mr. Hubbard reprobated the claim, asserted by the advocates of slavery, that the 
institution was in itself right,* and he was as strenuous to exact from the Southern States a 
performance of their constitutional duties as to insist upon the duties of his own section. 
With this intent he drew up and advocated resolutions which passed both branches of the 
Legislature, declaring the right of every citizen, colored or not colored, to the protection of 
the Constitution in his person and property; protesting against the existence of any laws, in 
any of the States or Territories, which subjected free colored citizens to the liability of being 
arrested and imprisoned, and sold into slavery for the costs of arrest and imprisonment; and 
instructing the Senators and requesting the Representatives of his State to use their influence 
for the repeal of such laws. 

In 1849 Dr. Hubbard was nominated by the Democratic party as its candidate for Gov- 
ernor of the State, and was elected to that office over the opposing candidates, Elijah L. 
Hamlin, the nominee of the Whigs, and George F. Talbot of the Free-Soil party, which then 
controlled about one-tenth of the entire vote of the State. 

In 1850 Governor Hubbard was again put in nomination by his party and was elected 
for a second term ; the opposing candidates being William G. Crosby, Whig, and George I". 
Talbot, Free-Soil. At this time the Maine Legislature commenced its sessions in May, but 
an act approved August 21, 1850 (Chapter 274, Laws of 1850), provided for submitting to 
the people a constitutional amendment fixing the annual meeting on the first Wednesday of 
fanuary, and also provided that the Governor and other State officers elected for the political 
year commencing on the second Wednesday of May, 1851, should hold their offices till the 
first Wednesday of January, 1853. By force of the vote adopting this amendment, Governor 
Hubbard's term of office was extended from May, 1852, to January, 1853. 

Among the measures to which he early directed the attention of the Legislature were the 
establishment of a reform school for juvenile offenders, distinct from the State prison, and 
from contact with the older class of criminals ; the establishment of an agricultural school; 
provision for a college or seminary for the education of females in the more advanced depart- 
ments of study ; suitable endowment for academies and colleges, and a proper system for the 
instruction of teachers. 

He laid especial stress upon the subject of education, to which he always assigned that 
first importance due to it in a country where the will of the majority makes the law ; and 
where, if the majority be ignorant or vicious, the laws must take a similar complexion. 
I luring ti i^ long residence in the South he had nevei owned or been willing to own a slave. 



OF BTOGRAPm 

"knowledge," lie said, " under our form of government, is the foundation upon which 
our institutions rest; it is the vital fluid which imparts health and strength to our social 
system." 

Perhaps the subject which he urged with most constant earnestness was the acquisition 
by the State of the public lands within its own limits, the encouragement of settlers, and the 
development of the northeastern portion of the State. 

Upon the separation of Maine from Massachusetts in [820, the parent State owned a 
large part of the public lands within the limits of Maine, and the development and prosperity 
of the new State depended in no small degree upon their management. 

While their occupancy for permanent settlement and as homesteads was manifestly in 
the interests of Maine, it had been found that more immediate and larger returns in money 
could be secured by selling the timber or leasing the lands for lumbering operations. 

Thus both States had been drawn into the latter policy. Large tracts of land were being 
stripped of their timber, and made comparatively valueless ; and the progress of permanent 
settlement was also obstructed by the exclusion of small holders resulting from the action of 
large proprietors. 

It also appeared that the State of Massachusetts, by adopting a system of leases for long 
terms, and by making conditional sales of her interests, reaped the benefit of absolute sales, 
yet, by retaining the actual title to the lands, in effect extended to her lessees and purchasers 
an exemption from taxation which was intended only for herself. 

It appeared, too, that neither the State nor the proprietors claiming under her. gave equi- 
table proportion of aid to the construction of roads requisite for the occupancy of the country. 

Governor Hubbard presented these matters to the Legislature, and pointed out in strong 
terms that Maine was bound, in justice to her citizens and from a proper regard to her own 
independence, to initiate a different policy. 

In consequence of his suggestion, the Legislature, on the 3d of April, [852, passed a 
resolve authorizing him to take such measures as he might deem expedient to lay before the 
authorities of Massachusetts, the grievances of which Maine complained in regard to the 
management and disposition of the lands owned by that State in common and in severalty in 
Maine, ami to ask such action as the interest of the State demanded. 

Under this resolution Governor Hubbard, through the agency of Mr. Anson I'. Morrill, 
the land agent of Maine, and Mr. John A. Poor, entered into negotiations with the State of 
Massachusetts, which finally resulted in the sale by that State to the State of Maine of all her 
interests in the public lands within the limits of the latter, upon terms substantially made b) 
tlie purchaser. 

The purchase was not consummated until after the expiration of Governor Hubbard's 
term of office, but it was the completion of a policy initiated and earnestl) advocated by him. 
and to his efforts is due in great measure the fact that Maine became complete mistress of her 



70 ENCYCLOP.liniA 

own territory, and was enabled to pursue a policy suited to its development, and in harmony 
with the interests of her citizens who wished to build up homes within her borders. 

As a part of the same general policy, Governor Hubbard urged that the advance cash 
payment then required from settlers on the public lands be remitted, and recommended the 
law, soon afterward adopted, which enabled every bona fide settler to acquire a home without 
making any other payment than a reasonable amount of labor in constructing roads for the 
use of his own neighborhood. 

Governor Hubbard also urged that proper encouragement be given to the construction 
of a railroad from Bangor to the eastern line of the State, making direct connection with the 
British Provinces, and a railroad into the gnat northeastern section of the State, known 
as the Aroostook, to secure the growth of that fertile region, and bring to the markets of the 
State its products, previously diverted to the neighboring Province of New Brunswick. 

The result of his eftorts was to give a marked impetus to the settlement of the public 
lands and the development of the richest agricultural portion of the State. 

The subject of State action which most absorbed public attention during Governor Hub- 
bard's administration was temperance legislation, and he signed, as Governor, the first act 
known as " the Maine law." 

The subject of this law had for several years occupied a prominent place in the public 
mind, and had been earnestly discussed. Neither of the leading political parties in the State 
was committed in its favor. Individual sentiment among members of those parties was divided, 
and indeed the opinion prevailed among the leaders of both parties that the question was not 
of a political character, and should not be made a party issue. 

In 1846, "an act to restrict the sale of intoxicating drinks," had been passed and 
approved. This was followed, near the end of the session of 1849, by the passage, through 
both branches of the Legislature, of "an act in relation to the sale of intoxicating liquors," 
which prohibited such sales under severe penalties, and gave an unrestricted right to search 
all places lor evidence of such sale, under warrant from any justice of the peace, issued upon 
a complaint in writing, stating the belief of the complainants that liquors were sold in viola- 
tion of the law. 

This act was vetoed by Governor Dana, who returned it to the next Legislature with 
the objection, among others, that it allowed the search of private residences and upon 
process issued without any sufficient proof. He characterized the bill as "an ill-digested 
outrage upon almost every right of our citizens ;" stated that he regarded it as a truism that 
the community could not be compelled to be temperate ; that it was generally admitted that 
intemperance had increased under the Act of 1846, and that the system of legislation, of which 
the bills in question wen; part, was objectionable, because it cultivated a general disrespect 
and disregard of laws which could not be enforced. "Is it not time," he asked, " to pause 
and candidly consider whether the whole system is not founded in entire ignorance or 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 7 i 

disregard of the motives which universally control human actions? And if thus radically 
wrong, whether it can be so perfected in detail as to produce favorable results?" 

In May, 1851, the act passed both Houses in a form greatly extended and elaborated. 
It contained some safeguards against the unwarrantable search of dwellings, but the search 
and seizure clauses and the penalties for violations of the law were rigorously drawn. The 
sentiment in favor of the law had been steadily growing; its substance was desired l>v a large 
part of the voting population of the State, and legislators had been chosen with a view to its 
passage. While neither one of the controlling political parties was yet prepared to pronounce 
in favor of the law, neither was prepared to take a positive stand against it. It was believed 
that not a few prominent Democrats, who wen- opposed to it, voted in the Legislature for its 
passage, under belief that it would be vetoed, as it was known that Governor Hubbard had 
expressed his view that the Act of 1849 should not have become a law ; but his approval was 
the result to which Governor Dana's argument had brought him. 

Governor Hubbard, on the 2d of June, approved the "Act for the suppression of drinking 
houses and tippling-shops," and it became a law. 

While he had some doubts as to the result in the form adopted, he was in favor of the 
object which it sought to accomplish. His view upon the subject was that a clear majority of 
the people desired the law and were entitled to have it, and that he had no right to veto it for 
party or personal considerations. ''Two sessions ot the Legislature," he said, "have been 
occupied since the veto of the preceding act in discussing and maturing the subject. It pass, d 
both Houses at the recent session by a vote of about two-thirds. It could not, then, be looked 
upon as ot that description of hasty and inconsiderate legislation which alone can authorize 
the interposition of the veto power — a power at all times somewhat arbitrary, and one which 
the Constitution did not contemplate as a part of the ordinary process of legislation." 

His view of the subject was further expressed in answer to communications addressed to 
the various candidates in the gubernatorial contest of [852, by committees appointed at the 
various temperance conventions held that year, and in his address to the temperance conven 
tion held at Augusta, over which he presided. "The Maine Law,'' he said, "is the law of the 
people, deliberately matured by them through a series of years, and enacted by the <>nl\ organ 
authorized by the Constitution and the spirit of our Covernment to transform the wishes of the 
people into law — the Senate and the House of Representatives in Legislature assembled — by 
overwhelming majorities. It is a constitutional law. I am prepared to enforce it as it now 
stands, and am opposed to its repeal until it shall have had a fair trial before the people. 
I have always approved the object of this law, ' the suppression of drinking houses and tippling- 
shops,' and am therefore opposed to any amendments which would impair its efficiency; 
while I am, nevertheless, of the opinion that it is susceptible of amendments that would not 
only not impair its efficiency, but would render it easier of execution and more efficient." 
He considered it matter for deep regret, however, that a law involving a question of moral 



ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

reform should have been unnecessarily and rashly drawn — as this law was at that rime — into 
the arena of" party politics to- subserve sellish purposes. No question of morals, he thought, 
could, under the complication of motives arising from such a contest, receive that impartial 
consideration which should secure its success upon its own merits. There could, he said, be 
no doubt that the people, through their representatives, have the right to enact a law to abate 
or suppress so monstrous a scourge as intemperance. And there could be as little doubt that 
the law in question was. in its main scope, within the limit of their constitutional power. That 
this law hail, on the whole, done good, could not, he thought, be denied by any candid and 
observing person. It would seem to have been owing to a forced construction and rash 
application of it that complaints had arisen. The object, he said, "the suppression ot drink- 
ing houses and tippling-shops," mist surely meet the approbation of ever)- well-ordered mind, 
and the execution of it, confined to such object and within the limits of construction given it 
by the judiciary, could certainly have given no offense to anyone whose opinions were worthy 
of regard. The mischief, he said, had been that too much was, by some, expected ot it. It 
had been construed and applied in a manner to interfere with tin,- private concerns and every- 
day business of society ; to intrude upon the secrets of families and enter the sacred precincts 
of the domestic fireside. It had been thought capable of purifying the motives and controlling 
the habits of man. "An egregious mistake ! Human laws can for the most part control only 
the overt acts of men, by giving the proper warning and affixing due penalties to such acts as 
shall conflict with the general good of society. To purify the heart, to correct the motives, to 
change the vicious habits of mankind and direct every action into the unruffled channel ot 
public and private good, can be consummated only by the divine precepts and influence of tin- 
Author of our faith." 

The law, in modified form, continues in force in Maine, and laws of similar purport now 
exist in many of our States where formerly intemperance was conspicuous. Governor 
Hubbard was also among the first to suggest, as a means for checking intemperance, that 
sellers of drams should be held directly responsible for damages caused by the sale. This 
remedy has with good results been provided by the laws of many of the States. 

During the period of Governor Hubbard's administration the national question which 
overshadowed all others was slavery extension. 

It was in 1S50 that Congress was occupied in discussing the vital issues raised by 
the application of California for admission to the union of States, and in deflating what are 
known as the Slavery Compromises and the Fugitive Slave Law of 1S50 These matters of 
national consequence were all-important to the several States, and it is of interest to know the 
attitude of their chief magistrates. 

Governor Hubbard's course was consistent with the views he had always entertained. In 
his first message to the Legislature he expressed them as follows: "It is our distinguished 
prerogative, under Divine Providence, to shape our own destinies as individuals and as States, 



OF BIOGRAPHY. n 

Here, for the first time in the history of the civilized world, is every man allowed to enjoy his 
natural rights. We establish our forms of government ; we enact our own laws. If we 
pervert or abuse this high prerogative, we are criminal or foolish. If wedo not transmit such 
blessings to posterity, we are ungrateful to our fathers and unjust to our children." 
Referring to the institution of slavery, he said it is "so palpable and flagrant an invasion of 
natural rights as to excite abhorrence, and to insure its eventual overthrow." 

He suggested that further legislation upon the exciting subject of slavery extension ■ 
unnecessary and might be pernicious, in view of the fact that the opinions and wishes of the 
State upon this all absorbing subject had been too frequently and freely expressed to be 
misunderstood ; that Maine was ably and faithfully represented in both branches of the 
National Legislature-; that instructions to her representatives through the State Legislature 
might not express the opinions of the people, which find their best expression upon subji 
for legislative action at the ballot box. 

His second message referred to the Compromises of 1S50, as an adjustment not such as 
either party desired, but a compromise, the most satisfactory to both parties which, under the 
circumstances, could be obtained. He counselled obedience to the law, and dissented from 
the argument that the " higher law " of conscience enjoined disobedience or resistance. With 
its opponent, he held that the law of God is always of paramount authority ; but he pointed 
out the danger of accepting as the law of God the variable standard of individual 
conscience. 

Conscience, he said, is not infallible, nor does it always reflect the will of God. The 
conscience of one age becomes the derision of the next. The conscience of one man impels 
him to do what the conscience of another man under the same circumstances impels him to 
forbear. "It was conscience," he said "which impelled the Catholic to torture and burn the 
Protestant — which impelled the Protestant in his turn to persecute the Catholic. The 
enlightened Hale could conscientiously thank God that he had been permitted to order a witch 
to execution, and to be instrumental in the extirpation of witchcraft. And the pious Las Casas 
believed he was acting in obedience to the higher law while he was laboring to establish the 
African slave-trade and to fasten upon this continent the curse of African slavery." 

"This man," he said, "would rescue his fellow-man from bondage, be the consequen 
to all others what they might. In the accomplishment of an object so desirable he would put 
at defiance the law anil the Constitution. That man would uphold every clause ol the 
Constitution, and would deem it dishonest to throw oil tin- obligations devolved upon him by 
any contract after he had enjoyed the benefits which it conferred; and especially would he 
deem it madness to abrogate a contract involving the interests of millions equally with 
himself entitled to a voice in the premises." 

"Our institutions." he said, "are founded on the right of the majority to control; 
limited and restrained by the provisions ol the Constitution The controlling will 

7 



74 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

'■■'■ is the voice of the majority manifested through the ballot-box. Every man is allowed 

to entertain his own opinions, to promulgate and enforce them upon the convictions of others. 
Every measure of government he has an unquestioned right to canvass and discuss: by 
argument, by invective, by ridicule, to render it odious, if he can, to the power who may 
modify or abrogate it at their pleasure. But when he goes one step further and claims the 
ri"ht to determine for himself whether he will obey the law or resist its execution, he claims 
that which no government can concede and exist. 

In 1852 the disruption of party ties was beginning. The independent action of 
Governor Hubbard upon the subject of the Maine Law aroused against him the violent 
opposition of its enemies in his own party. 

His action in reference to the public lands concentrated in opposition to his re-election a 
powerful interest embarked in their appropriation to private lumbering operations. His 
hostility to the institution of slavery alienated the pronounced pro-slavery men of his party. 
The consequence was a division of the Democratic ranks, and his nomination was bitterly 
opposed in the Democratic State Convention of 1852. 

Writing to him on the subject, a friend of national reputation said : "There is a class of 
men who have acted toward you more like fiends than men ; and not satisfied with that, they 
now seem determined to give the State into the hands of the Whigs." Governor Hubbard, 
however, received the nomination of his party in the Convention of 1852, but the disaffected 
members held a separate convention and put in nomination a gentleman known as the 
Anti-Maine-Law candidate. 

Governor Hubbard received a large plurality of the popular vote, and indeed a larger 
number of votes than at either previous election. But as the total vote was swelled far 
beyond its usual proportions, and as there was four candidates in the field, he failed by some 
five thousand votes of a popular majority. The election therefore devolved upon the 
Legislature, where, by a combination between the Whigs and the disaffected Democrats, the 
Whig candidate, Mr. William G. Crosby, was chosen Governor. 

It is to be noted that from this time until 1856, when Hon. Hannibal Hamlin was elected 
by a decided majority, no Governor of Maine was elected by the people ; though in the mean- 
time Governor Crosby (Whig), Governor Anson P. Morrill (styled " Maine Law Know- 
Nothing"), and Governor Samuel Wells (Democrat), were chosen in succession by 1 allot in 
the Legislature. With the exception of Governor Wells, who served during one year only 
(1856), Maine had no Governor from the Democratic party from the term of Governor 
Hubbard until 1879. 

Upon retiring from the position of Governor he resumed at once the active practise of 
his profession, in which he had for years occupied a foremost rank in the State. Indeed he 
had continued his professional labor during his term of office as far as the discharge of his 
public duties would allow, and more earnestly than a proper regard for his own health justified. 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 75 

He maintained his connection with the Democratic party until the condition of the 
country during the Civil War impelled him in 1864 to cast his vote for President Lincoln. He 
took no active part, however, in political contests. 

In May, 1857, during- the administration of President Buchanan, he was appointed a 
Special Agent of the Treasury Department to examine the several custom-houses in the 
State of Maine, with especial instructions looking to the efficient and economical enforcement 
of the revenue laws. His services in this appointment were so important that in [858 they 
were extended to all the collection districts in the New England States. 

In March, 1859, he was appointed by the President, and confirmed by the Senate, 
as Commissioner under the Reciprocity Treaty concluded between the United States and Her 
Britannic Majesty, June 5, 1854. One object of this treaty was to settle disputes and to put 
an end to collisions in respect to the right of inhabitants of the United States to take fish in 
the bays, harbors, and creeks of the British Provinces, and to land upon their coasts and 
shores for the purpose of drying nets and curing fish. Differences threatening serious 
consequences had from time to time arisen between the citizens of the two contracting powers 
engaged in the fisheries, and an effort had been made to exclude American fishermen from all 
waters within a marine league of the coasts. The treaty conceded to the citizens of either 
party the right to fish in all places upon the Atlantic coasts of the other, except in rivers and 
mouths of rivers, and made provision for the appointment of commissioners to examine and 
decide upon all such places as were intended by the treaty to be reserved and excluded from the 
common liberty of fishing. 

Governor Hubbard held this position for two years, during which he made careful 
examination of the coast-line from Maryland to the northern shore of the St. Lawrence, and 
joined the commissioner appointed by Great Britain in defining, for the purposes of the treaty, 
the mouths of the various rivers within those limits. This was the last official position he 
occupied. The late years of his life were saddened by the events of the war, in which his 
eldest son lost his life. Upon the epiestions which preceded the war and led to it, his views 
have already been given. 

He believed before the conflict that the safety of the Republic depended upon the 
success of the Democratic party, because in his opinion it was the only National party 
maintaining the equality of rights and of duties belonging to the separate States. He- 
foresaw that the success of the Republican party at the polls would probably result in a 
conflict of forces, and he believed that such a conflict must end in the destruction of the 
Union. "Would that Congress had supreme control over the whole subject," he said. 
" Would that they might in an orderly and amicable manner abolish slavery forever, ami 
dispose of the slaves themselves, in a way to promote their happiness and advance them in 
the scale of civilization. But we must take things as the) are, not as we would have them. 
The Constitution must be obeyed, or we are no longer a nation.*' In the Constitution he read 



7 6 ENCYCLOPEDIA 

the recognition of slavery, and he remembered, too, that several of the Slave States were 

admitted to the Union as such during the lifetime and under the sanction of the framers of the 
Constitution. He thought he saw in the tendency of events the fulfilment of Mr. Jefferson's 
fears. The forecast was correct — of all save the final result of the conflict, and this was to 
be shaped by Providence better even than the young and sanguine friends of freedom 
had dared to hope. And when the conflict came Governor Hubbard did not hesitate where to 
bestow his sympathies and his influence. 

In the election which preceded the war he acted with the party known as the Douglas 
Democrats. From the first collision between the North and South he was firm in his 
conviction that for the North the only honorable course was to put forth all its strength, and 
suppress by force the Southern power that had appealed to the arbitrament of force. 

Writing to his son, who had just entered the army, he said: "Greater hardships, 
privations and dangers are probably before you, but I know you will meet them like a man. 
Where duty impels, the burden of labor is greatly lightened. I have only to say, be cautious, 
be prudent; brave I know you will be, fearless where duty leads; and may God be with 
you!" A letter to the same son, written at the close of 1861, expressed his views, very 
advanced for the time, as to the use of the slaves in the war. Referring to the Trent affair, 
and the danger of war with England, then thought to be imminent, he wrote : — 

" The contest would appear to be a more formidable one, and our chances of bringing it 
to a successful issue in the re-establishment of the Government more doubtful. 1 am, 
however, by no means certain it would be so. It would, as a matter of necessity in my 
judgment, run immediately into a servile war — a war for tin- extermination of slavery. The 
slaves would be armed and disciplined, and made free. And this right as well as necessity 
would demand, for in such a contest for our own liberties and independence, a contest for the 
maintenance of a government for ourselves and for posterity, we are bound to use all 
the legitimate means that God -and nature have put into our hands. Let Great 

Britain join the South, and let the war be waged by us to destroy slaver)-, and the 
hollowness of her pretensions will be made apparent to the civilized world. She would be 
stripped of her mask, and self-interest be demonstrated to be the motive of her policy, as it 
always has been. We should probably then gain alliances and aid from other quarters." 

The death of this son, who fell in the first assault upon Port Hudson, in May, 1863, was 
a sorrow the father, then advanced in years, could never wholly conquer. He lived, indeed, 
to see the success in arms of the North, but not the complete results of the war in the 
re-establishment of the present harmonious relations between North and South, and the great • 
material development of the Southern country. His death occurred February 6, 1869, and its 
manner was fitting the course of his life. 

Though age and infirmities of body had caused him to forego the severest toils of his 
laborious profession, he still went daily to visit the sick where vicinity permitted, and 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 77 

the severity of the case required his experience and skill. The day before his death he had 
made such a professional call, and if his life had continued a lew hours longer he would have 
repeated it. He was suffering at the time from a severe told threatening congestion, and on 
the morning of his death stated, in answer to inquiries ol his wile, that he was sick as one 
could be and live. It had been his custom through life never to forego his work for his own 
indisposition. Twice in his earlier years he had continued his daily avocations while suffering 
from fractured bones — the result of accident — without omitting work for a day, while his 
healing progressed. < )n the morning- of his death he went from his house to his office — near 
at hand — to make preparation for the work of the day. While there he was overcome 
with vertigo resulting from defective circulation induced by his disease, and fell to the floor. 
His daughter came to his aid, and was presently joined by friends. One suggested that a 
doctor should be called. He understood what was said, and. understood his own case, and 
answered, "No; keep the doctors away." Presently a friend suggested that he should be 
lifted from the floor and be carried to his house. "Let me lie here while life lasts," he said ; 
and there, in the place where for many years he had ministered to the diseases of others, his 
own life ended. He died with his head on his daughter's lap, and as his eyes grew dim sin- 
heard him calmly utter his final question, "Are you still there?" 

This brief sketch shows his character better, perhaps, than any studied analysis might do. 
His temperament was judicial rather than partisan or aggressive. His disposition was to 
maintain rather than gain. He was formed to be a bulwark ol society, rather than an 
originator of new social methods. His career presents few phases to captivate the imagination, 
but it illustrates the strength, solidity, and justice which constitute high character in the 
individual and safety for the State. 

In person Governor Hubbard was a man of impressive appearance— six feet two inches 
in height, erect and well-formed, with large head, black hair and eyes, and a commanding 
presence. His tastes and habits were simple, and democratic in the best sense of that word. 
He was fond of books, and in his latest years found recreation in reviewing the classical 
studies of his youth and in extended reading of Greek and Latin authors. His most promi- 
nent traits wen- his absolute love of justice and his courageous adherence to his convictions 
of right. 



78 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

v y^\UNYON, THEODORE, of New Jersey. Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Pleni. 
1 *^^ potentiary of the United States to Germany, who has won rare distinction at 
t* — \j the liar, on the bench, and in hanking and military life, was horn at Somerville, 
New Jersey, October 25, 1822. He is a descendant of Vincent Rongneon, a 
Huguenot, <>l Poitiers, France, who settled about the year 1668, in Middlesex county, New 
Jersey, where the family is still very numerous. His father, Abraham Runyon, in early life 
was a merchant in New Orleans, where he acquired a competency. The son, Theodore, was 
graduated at Yale College in 1842, then studied law in Newark, New Jersey, was admitted to 
the bar in 1 846, and entered upon the practise of his profession in that city, where he has ever 
since resided. Under the city government, he was first City Attorney, and then City Counsel 
for many years, holding the latter office until 1864, when he was elected Mayor. Under the 
State government, he has held various appointments. In 1856, he was appointed by the 
Governor on the commission to revise and codify the militia laws of the State, and in 1857, he 
was elected and commissioned Brigadier-General of militia, and he served in that capacity 
until 1869, when he was appointed Major-General commanding the National Guard (the whole 
organized militia) of the State. In i860, he was one of the presidential electors elected in 
New Jersey. At the breaking out of the Civil War, he was appointed Brigadier-General of 
New Jersey's quota (a brigade of four regiments) of the 75,000 men first called into the 
field, and was mustered into the United States service, and served until the expiration of 
the term of enlistment. Fort Runyon, near Washington, was built by the troops under his 
command. 1 lis services in the field were specially commended by Major-General McDowell, 
a division of whose army he commanded at the time ol the first battle of Bull Run ; and in 
1862, the New Jersey House of Assembly, by special resolution, recpiested the Governor to 
confer on him the brevet rank of Major-General for " patriotic and meritorious services in 
the field,'' and Governor Olden accordingly conferred such rank with the concurrence of the 
Senate. 

In 1863, the ritie companies of the State were, by order of the Governor, combined in a 
single independent organization known as " The New Jersey Rifle Corps." They formed a 
single brigade, and General Runyon was elected by the field officers Brigadier General, and 
so commissioned by Governor Parker. He held this office until the organization of the 
National Guard of the State, into which the rifle corps was merged, when he was appointed 
and commissioned Major-General of that organization. In 1865, he was the Democratic 
candidate for Governor. He was the first President of the Manufacturers' National Bank of 
Newark, and held that office until 1873, when he was appointed Chancellor of the State, and 
he resigned both that and his military office. The term of the Chancellor's office is seven 
years, and at the expiration of his term in 1880, he was re-appointed for the term ending in 
1887, thus giving Chancellor Runyon the long incumbency of fourteen years. 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 



79 



The office of Chancellor has always been one of great dignity and importance in the 
State of New Jersey. In Colonial times, until 1770, the Court of Chancery was composed of 
the Governor or Lieutenant-Governor and the members of the royal council who had taken 
the prescribed oath. In 1770, Governor Franklin, with the consent of his council provided 
that the Governor alone should form the court, appointing his masters, examiners, and other 
officers, and exercising the powers of the court according to the usage and customs of the 
High Court of Chancery in England. This continued until the adoption of the revolutionary 
constitution of July 2, 1776, which provided that the Governor, or in his absence the Vice- 
President of the Council, should be Chancellor of the colony. And in October 7, 1776, it 
was enacted that the courts of law and equity should continue with like powers as before the 
Declaration of Independence. This continued until the adoption of the Constitution of [844, 
and for nearly eighty years the Governor of the State was also its Chancellor, and held the 
judicial powers and jurisdiction of the High Chancellor of England. The new constitution 
provided for the appointment of a single Chancellor who should also be the Ordinal) or 
Surrogate-General and Judge of the Prerogative Court, and no change has been made in the 
tribunal except that by recent laws four Vice-Chancellors exist, on the nomination of the 
, Chancellor, to aid him in the duties which the great increase of equity business in recent 
times has made it impossible for one man to fulfil. The Chancellor is a member and the 
presiding Judge of the Court of Errors and Appeals ami is a Judge of the Court of Pardons. 
Not only is the office one ol the highest distinction under the constitution and laws, but its 
duties and powers are such in their nature and scope as to confer upon its holder the highest 
judicial responsibility and to require of him the best mental and moral qualities, in order to 
inspire public confidence and to discharge its arduous duties to the satisfaction of suitors and 
tin; citizens of the State. Chancellor Runyon held this high office for fourteen years as 
already stated, fully maintaining its dignity and meeting all its requirements during a period 
when the duties devolving upon him were exceptionally laborious and perplexing. He 
succeeded three chancellors ol great eminence and ability, benjamin Williamson, Henry VV 
Green and Abraham O. Zabriskie. His training and practise at the bar had been upon 
different lines. He was an able advocate in jury trials, and a versatile practitioner in common 
law and equity cases ; he had been a zealous politician and an efficient City Counsel. He 
had been much engaged in the militia service of the State, and had led the first New fersey 
troops to the field in the Civil War. He had been Mayor of his city and a candidate for 
Governor of the State. I le was Major ( ieneral of the militia of the St ite and President of a 
National bank, and was otherwise' actively engaged in public and political affairs, when he was 
appointed Chancellor. His career up to that point did not seem to have been such as to 
prepare him in a special manner lor the duties ol an equity judge, but the qualities, both 
mental and moral, were in him, and were soon displayed in the administration of the tttUa- to 
which hi- devoted himseli at once, throwing aside all other cares, and the duties ol which 



So ENCYCLOPEDIA 

he discharged with unwearied assiduity during his two terms. And ;it the close ol the second 
term he had the almost unanimous support of the bar for his re-appointment. 

In consequence of the great increase in the number ol corporations, and the disasters to 
corporate property which o< i urred just after his appointment, the extent and difficulty ol his 
duties were greatly enhanced. So, also, were the responsibilities ol the office arising out ol 
railroad receiverships, and the laws imposing on the Chancellor the duty of carrying on the 
business of great railroad corporations, and other trusts, in the interest ol the public and tin- 
parties interested. Some idea of the magnitude of these duties may be formed from the fact 
that at the close of Chancellor Runyon's second term in 1SS7, there were forty-two volumes 
of equity reports of New Jersey which had been published since the organization of the State, 
and out of these nineteen were issued during his incumbency. Fourteen volumes ol the 
Law Reports of New Jersey contain all the opinions of the Supreme Court ol the State 
during the same period, ami that court consisted of nine judges. The same volumes contain 
more than eighty opinions delivered by Chancellor Runyon as presiding Judge ol the Court 
of Errors and Appeals in law cases in that court. 

Chancellor Runyon was enabled to perform this extraordinary amount of judicial labor 
by reason of a rare combination of qualities. While patient and kindly in the hearing of 
arguments, he was painstaking and deliberate in arriving at the facts of a case. Uniformly 
courteous, especially to the younger members of the bar, by his good temper and discretion 
he was able to despatch without friction the most harrassing and complicated business. He 
was not only a good lawyer, but by his knowledge of public affairs, his wide acquaintance 
with practical matters, and his unquestioned integrity and sound judgment, he was peculiarly 
fitted to discharge the duties of an equity judge. His administration gave great satisfaction 
to both the liar and the people, and it doubtless had the effect of quieting a widespread 
dissatisfaction with the distinct separation of the law and equity tribunals, which was abolished 
in England soon after his appointment, ami now prevails in but a small part oi this country. 
At the close of his second term as Chancellor he resumed the practise? of his profession in 
the city of Newark, and actively engaged in important professional duties, and in the 
private and public trusts which naturally fell upon one of his wide experience on the 
bench and at the bar. The degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by the Wesleyan 
University in 1S67, by Rutgers College in 1875, a,K l by Yale University in 1882. 

Minister Runyon was appointed by President Cleveland to the German Mission, March 
20, 1893. The New York Sun made the following comment : " The appointment of ex-Chan- 
cellor Runyon to be Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Berlin ought to 
gratify every American citizen. Perhaps the circumstance that the Republican side ol New 
Jersey had recently furnished an excellent Minister to Germany, in the person of the Hon. 
William Walter Phelps, impelled Mr. Cleveland to go to the same State lor a first class man 
for this first class mission. He has chosen the right individual. He could not have made a 






OF BIOGRAPHY. Si 

better choice, in New Jersey or elsewhere, as regards character, ability, patriotism or the 
general recognition of Mr. Runyon's eminent merits." A reception and dinner was given on 
the evening of April 25th, in New York City at the Waldorf Hotel in honor of Minister 
Runyon. Republicans and Democrats, as well as leading business men of that State to the 
number of 250, were present. The tables were spread in the German cafe. 

Among those who sat down were Governor Werts, ex-Minister to Spain E. Burd Grubb, 
ex-Governor Green, ex-Governor Bedle, Henry Villard, State Comptroller Gray, Secretary of 
State Kelsey, Mgr. Doane, John Kean, Jr., ex-Senator Hobart, Chancellor McGill, Senator 
Adrian, Vice-Chancellor Vanlleet, Judge Magie and Judge Henry. 

Franklin Murphy, of Newark, presided. Letters of regret were read from Senators 
McPherson and Smith, Carl Schurz and others. William Walter Phelps cabled from Berlin: 
"With pride for the man and pride for the State, I, too, drink to-night to the first man of 
New Jersey." 

Mr. Murphy paid tribute to Minister Runyon and, in responding, the latter complimented 
former Ministers to Germany, and especially Mr. Phelps. Governor Werts, in responding 
to "The State," said that General Runyon was a typical Jerseyman. Henry Villard spoke 
on "Our Foreign Relations." 




82 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 



©RAY, HORACE. On the death of Justice Nathan Clifford, of the United States 
Supreme Court, Horace Gray, then the Chief Justice of Massachusetts, was 
appointed in his place, and duly commissioned upon the 20th of December, 1881. 
He was a native of Boston, and was born on the 24th of March, 1828, graduated 
from Harvard University in 1845, enjoyed the advantages of extensive travel in Europe, and 
returned to Harvard to enter its law school. He subsequently read law under the direction 
of Judge Lowell, and obtained admission to the bar in 1851. In early life he identified 
himself with the founders of the Free Soil party, but the practise of his profession absorbing 
his attention, his subsequent connection with politics has been but nominal. He soon won a 
prominent position at the bar, conducting many important cases, and in 1S54 was appointed 
Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, a position which he 
held until 1861, publishing sixteen volumes. While thus engaged he formed a law partnership 
in 1S57 with Judge Hoar, and continued in the discharge of active professional engagements 
and the enjoyment of an increasing practise until he was appointed by Governor Andrew, on 
the 24th of August, 1864, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the State. In 1873 
he became Chief Justice, as the successor of Chief Justice Chapman. 

As a State Judge he delivered many interesting opinions on a great variety of subjects, 
the most important of which concerned the exemption of the United States from suit, the law 
of charities, ancient grants and boundaries, the effect of war upon private rights, the 
annexation of towns, and the liability of municipal corporations to private action, the 
constitutionality of confirmatory statutes, contracts ultra vires, and the conflict of laws. 
Uniting to natural ability an unusual and thorough knowledge of law, acquired by careful 
study and ripened by experience, his accession to a place upon the Supreme Bench of the 
Union was not only greeted with applause and commendation, but was recognized as a striking 
feature in a professional career, which resembled, in its steady rise and expansive progression, 
the promotion of an English lawyer to the most exalted honors. In character as well as 
learning, in age and robust vigor, in a majestic presence, he was fit for the work before him. 
As a presiding Judge he had been strict and punctilious — a trait which, although uncomfortable 
to the slovens and sluggards of the bar, had proved an incentive to younger men to acquire 
technical correctness and precision. Anxious himself to learn, ambitious to preserve 
the precious stores of knowledge, and stimulating others to emulate his example, honorable, 
fearless, and competent, he had become one of the most trusted guardians of the interest of 
justice. 

In the Supreme Court his views have been chiefly in support of a high exercise of Federal 
authority, anil he it was who, in the famous case of Juillard vs. Greenman — establishing the 
constitutionality of the Legal Tender Acts in time of peace — placed the cap stone upon the 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 



83 



majestic column representative of National power, attaining a dizzy height to which even the 
boldest architect of the Constitution had never raised his eyes. Since then, whether it be the 
novelty requisite to support a patent, the status of Indians, the relations of guardian and ward, 
the conflict of laws, the constitutionality of mill acts, the interpretation of wills, the nature of 
infamous crimes, the true meaning of contracts of shipment, the powers of courts martial, 
the exemption of the property of the United States from taxation by a State, the Civil Law of 
Louisiana, the distinction between capital and income, the original jurisdiction of the Supreme 
Court over suits by a State, or the jurisdiction of the United States over the Guano Islands — 
that called forth a judicial utterance or the entry of a final decree, he has in each instance 
expressed himself in terms dignified, firm and impressive, and supported his conclusions by 
reasons well sustained by authority. His dissenting opinions are but few in number, the best 
known of which are in the Arlington case, and the Original Package case of Leisy vs. Hardin. 
— {History Supreme Court United States, by Hampton L. Carson.) 




84 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

^""^ OUTHARD, SAMUEL L.,'of New Jersey, Governor and Chancellor in 1832, was 
V^^^k horn at Baskingridge, New fersey, fune 9, (787. I lis father, Henry Southard, was 
^^^— * from Long Island, and removed to New fersey early in life. lie had only a 
common English education, and started in life as a day laborer; but by untiring 
industry and saving, managed to purchase a farm, and was for many years a Justice of the 
Peace, and several years a Member of the Assembly of New fersey. At the election for 
members of Congress, in the fall of 1S00, he was elected by the Republican party a 
representative from New Jersey, and was successively re-elected until 1810. In 1 8 1 4 he was 
again elected, and continued .to be re die ted until 1820, closing his Congressional career on 
the 3d of March, 1X21. His son took his seat in the Senate in February, ami they were both 
members of the joint committee of the two Houses which reported what was then called 
the Missouri Compromise. He died fune 2, 1842, a few days before the death ol his son. 

It was said that when Samuel was about eleven years of age, his mother struck him for 
some impropriety of conduct ; becoming enraged, he left his home with the intention of not 
returning. He had not proceeded far before he began to reflect upon the rashness and 
wickedness of his conduct, and seating himself by the way-side, he wept long and bitterly, 
and rose up to return home, beg his mother's forgiveness, and promise her that his temper 
should never again become his master. This interesting incident, which seems to have been 
derived from his own statement, I can readily accept as authentic, because it agrees so well 
with my own observation of his disposition. He undoubtedly possessed a warm and 
susceptible temperament, and although he too often yielded to temptation, he was capable ol 
great self-control, and sometimes was called upon to exercise it, not only amid scenes of 
political warfare, but on occasions of far more trying inflictions ot private wrong and 
injury. 

When about twelve years of age he commenced the study of Latin, at a classical 
academy taught at Baskingridge by the Rev. Robert Finley, afterwards well known as the 
principal founder of the American Colonization Society. Here he enjoyed the tuition of an 
accomplished scholar, a thorough disciplinarian, a skillful teacher, and one particularly 
distinguished for his ability to awaken the interest of his pupils in what they were studying. 
He had a natural fondness for teaching, and gave his whole mind to the work. His influence 
with the scholars was increased by his sacred profession, and the uncommon power and 
unction which marked his efforts in the pulpit. And here, of more importance to him, 
perhaps, than the studies of the school, he enjoyed tin- fellowship of Theodore Frelinghuysen, 
not then, as he afterwards became, a devoted Christian, but a moral ami amiable youth, 
beloved by his classmates, and exercising a salutary influence over his associates. The 
friendship here commenced remained unbroken through Mr. Southard's life. Joseph R. 
Ingersoll, of Philadelphia, George Chambers, of Pennsylvania, Philip Lindsley (afterwards 




^^^ 



Of BIOGRAPHY. 85 

Vice President of Princeton and President of Nashville University), and Rev. Dr. [acob 
Kirkpatrick, were also students with Southard at this school. 

In September. 1N02, he entered the junior class at Princeton, and in [804, at the age of 
seventeen years and three months, took his degree with honor at that institution, in the same 
class with Frelinghuysen, Ingersoll, Kirkpatrick and Lindsley, his fellow-students in the 
academy. Samuel Stanhope Smith, so distinguished for his polished manners, for his acquaint- 
ance with ancient and modern literature, and lor eloquence as a preacher, was then tin presi- 
dent of the college, and in full possession of his faculties. Rev. Dr. James Alexander, 
referring to him in his centennial address, in 1S47, says: "A little later we who first saw these 
shades in [81 2, recall the venerable form of the president as he laid aside the symbol of 
learned rule ; beautiful and lordly in his decay ; unsurpassed in our memory for perfect grai e 
fulness ami a stateliness which hail lost all that was once considered as porn])." And Southard 
himself, in an address before the alumni of the college, in [832, says of him: "Of but one 
of them can I speak from observation and intercourse, and of him the impression remains too 
vivid with many of you to need that I should arouse it. Who that ever saw the dignified and 
gentle, graceful and manly person and manners ol Smith, and has not the: object still unefficed 
upon his sense of vision? Who that has heard his polished and fervid eloquence, can have 
lost the impression upon his ear? Who that felt the influence of his benevolence and piety, 
and does not still feel its action upon the heart 5 Who that listened to the instructions of his 
learning, and the precepts of his wisdom, does not find his pantings after higher attainments 
in virtue and knowledge enlivened by the recollections?" 

Soon after he left the college, Mr. Southard went to Mendham, Morris county, and 
taught a classical school. Proposing then to travel through the South, he went to Wash- 
ington, where his father was a member of the I louse of Representatives, lb- had there 
become intimate with Colonel John Taliaferro (pronounced Tolliver), for many years a member 
of Congress from Virginia, who applied to him to recommend a tutor to take charge of his 
sons and nephews. For many years before this time, and for years afterward, it was a com- 
mon thing for wealthy Virginians to seek tutors educated at Princeton. As soon as young 
Mr. Southard arrived, the proposition was made to him to accept the situation, which he 
agreed to do, and to relinquish his plan of travel. 

Accordingly, in the fall of 1805, he commenced his residence at Hagley, the plantation 
of Colonel Taliaferro, in King George's county, a few miles from Fredericksburg, and 
remained an inmate of his family five years. He had generally eight pupils, two of them 
sons of the colonel, and the others were his nephews, or other relatives, and was accustomed 
to devote five days of the week to the duties of the situation as tutor Soon he added to his 
other employments the study of the law, under the direction and with the aid of Judges Green 
and brooks, of Fredericksburg. After the examination usual there, before judges in private, 
he was admitted to practise law in 1 S09. 



86 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

It is not easy now fully to appreciate the advantages enjoyed by an acceptable tutor in 
the family of a rich and cultivated planter of Virginia sixty years ago. One of his pupils, 
Major Lawrence Taliaferro, who recently died at his residence in Bedford, Pennsylvania, after 
having been for many years on the retired list of the United States army, writes to me : 
"Southard was treated as a friend and a brother; we loved him." Another pupil, James 
Monroe Taliaferro, now of Stafford county, Virginia, writes : " It is impossible for me to do 
justice to one of the best men I ever met. Pure, gentle, affectionate and talented, he needed 
no association to aid him, for his own virtues shone above the generality of men with 
exceeding brilliancy, and won for him a name and respect that is still green and llourishing 
in the memory of all who had the pleasure of his acquaintance. He was our guide, example 
and teacher, and I shall never forget him ; and who could, with a heart to appreciate such 
noble traits as he possessed?" Treated as the associate and friend of the family, and 
introduced to the society of the cultivated men and women with whom they had almost daily 
intercourse, furnished with a horse, at all times at his disposal, and thus enabled to reciprocate 
the visits of neighboring families, a youth prepared for it as Mr. Southard had been, was 
afforded means of improvement in knowledge and manners, which could hardly be prized too 
highly. 

The state of society among the better class of the planters of Virginia, now entirely 
changed, whether it shall prove to be for the better or the worse, was at that time very peculiar. 
Writing from Charlotte county in May, 1826, the Rev. Dr. J. W. Alexander describes that region 
as "a rich, fertile region producing great quantities of prime tobacco, and of course growing 
wealthy. The manners of the people are plain, frank, hospitable, and independent, proud of 
their Virginiaism and all its peculiarities. I suppose that no set of people in the world live 
more at their ease, or indeed more luxuriously, so far as eating and drinking are concerned. 
No farmer would think of sitting down to dinner with less than four dishes of meat, or to 
breakfast without several different kinds of warm bread. It is, morever, a moral country ; no 
gambling, no dissipation or frolicking." 

Colonel Taliaferro was a relation of James Monroe, and enjoyed not only his 
acquaintance and fellowship, but was intimate also with Jefferson and Madison, and most of 
the other distinguished men of his time. His family circle, like that in which it was the good 
fortune of William Wirt to be admitted in the same vicinity, and which aided so much in 
forming his admirable character, as is stated by his biographer, furnished attractions both to 
old and young. His children and their associates drew around them many cheerful and happy 
companions. An elegant hospitality prevailed in his household, choice books were found in 
his library or in the libraries of his immediate friends, instructive and agreeable conversation 
enlivened his fireside. Hagley exhibited just such a combination of rare and pleasant 
appurtenances as are likely to make the best impressions upon the mind of an ingenuous and 
ambitious youth, and to inspire him with zeal in the cultivation of virtue and knowledge. Mr. 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 87 

Southard attracted the attention and won the affectionate regards of Mr Monroe, and was 
accustomed frequently to visit him, and sometimes to spend several days with him at his 
residence in Loudon county, some sixty miles or more from King George's. Among the 
inmates of his home at Hagley, was a ward of his patron, Miss Rebecca 1 [arrow, daughter of 
a deceased minister of the Episcopal Church, originally from Ireland, whom he afterwards 
married ; although it appears from some of his letters that he had long indulged a passion for 
a lady at Mendham. 

A change in the society of Eastern Virginia began to manifest itself very plainly several 
years before the recent Rebellion. Much of the land was badly cultivated, and wealth 
diminished rather than increased. The Rebellion hastened the decay. Hagley, I have been 
informed, is now a ruin. One of Mr. Southard's pupils writing to me, remarked : "We are 
a poor set hereabouts. Honors are sometimes dangerous ; my services in the Senate of 
Virginia for many years has placet! my neck under the Congressional guillotine, and the war 
has left me a beggar on the earth, with a very large family." 

Mr. Southard was licensed as an attorney by the Supreme Court of this State in 1X1 1, 
and then took up his residence in Flemington, the county seat of Hunterdon county, where 
he built himself a house. He was married to Miss Harrow at Hagley, in June, 1S12. He 
soon acquired a good practise, and was appointed Prosecuting Attorney of the county. 

He first attracted attention, and took the place he was entitled by his talents and 
acquirements to fill, in an argument before the Legislature ot New Jersey, in January, 1815, 
in opposition to a petition presented by Livingston and Fulton to repeal a law of this State 
passed in 1 81 3, granting to Aaron Ogden and Daniel Dod the exclusive privilege of using 
steamboats plying between New Jersey and New York in the waters of New Jersey. This 
law was designed, and expressed on its face, the purpose of opposing the: monopoly of 
running steamboats in the waters of New York, granted by that State to the first person who 
should succeed in constructing a boat to be propelled by steam, capable of passing through 
the water at the rate of six miles an hour, and which right was thus acquired by the success 
of Fulton's boat, constructed by him with the aid of Mr. Livingston. The celebrated Thomas 
Addis Emmet appeared as the advocate ot Livingston and Fulton, [oseph Hopkinson being 
associated with Mr. Southard. 

Fortunately we have a contemporary statement of the arguments in this case, in a 
" Letter to a gentleman in Washington," understood to have been written by Lucius II. 
Stockton, Esq., to his brother Richard, then a member of Congress. Mr. Emmet made the 
opening address. Mr. Southard's answer is thus described : — 

"His whole speech, which appeared to me to be delivered almost extempore, or with 
very short notes, to which he made no perceivable application, was clear, neat, ornate, fluent, 
and sententious, manifesting a capacit) of intellect really gigantic. It was distinguished by a 
lucid order and arrangement, united with great precision and simplicity <>l eloquence, which. 



88 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

however, was very forcible, and rising to a high degree of excitement in certain parts, but 
particularly in the conclusion of his argument. 

" Possessing that classical and ingenuous modesty usually accompanying the superiority 
of true literary merit, he has the seductive manner ot an Attic elegance, easier to conceive 
than describe, which, irresistibly captivating the affections, insinuates itself into the minutest 
ligaments ol the heart. It is, therefore, easy to observe an inexpressible elegance, grace, 
dignity, and lorce, exciting a peculiar interest in everything which he utters, and justly entitling 
him to the character of what is well expressed in the language of our aboriginal inhabitants 
by 'a beloved young man.' Though I have been accustomed for many years to hear the 
most eminent men of our country, celebrated for the eloquence of the Senate, forum, and 
pulpit, yet I can say with sincerity that, in my judgment, he was never exceeded by a man of 
any age, and rarely, if ever, equalled by a man of twenty-seven years old. His voice is clear, 
musical, and though not very strong, so distinct that you never fail to hear ever)' word. On 
this occasion he so completely united the snaviter in modo with the fortiler in re, that he 
obtained the rare facility seldom enjoyed by us who tread the toilsome and thorny paths of 
forensic litigation, of perfectly satisfying his clients ami gratifying his friends, without incur- 
ring the ire usually excited in adversaries. I am confident that in this great cause — in which 
not to have been disgraced by a necessary comparison with Hopkinson, Emmet, and < >gden, 
is an honor of no inferior grade — he delivered a speech neither defective nor redundant, 
which created an indelible impression on his hearers, not to be erased while the love of 
brilliant genius, real eloquence, profound erudition, and manly patriotism remain to adorn and 
vivify the minds of Jerseymen. Although I very much regret the delusion under which I view 
him as laboring on the subject of politics, which, considering his pure, amiable, and irreproach- 
able character, I must attribute to the early prejudices acquired under his parental roof, and 
his subsequent residence in a Democratic part of Virginia, yet I sincerely wish he may be Ion- 
continued as a blessing and ornament to his friends, family and country." 

The State law so obnoxious to Livingston and Fulton was repealed by the Legislature, 
notwithstanding the strenuous efforts of Colonel Ogden, his counsel and friends ; and the 
result of the whole contest was very disastrous to that gentleman. But Mr. Southard was 
not only fortunate in being brought before the public in such an important and well known 
controversy, in connection with such celebrated speakers, and in being able to maintain a 
respectable position among them, but also in having such a friendly reporter, whose account, 
although partaking of the somewhat exaggerated style of the eccentric writer, was exceed- 
ingly interesting, and was well received and generally read at the time of its publication. 
1 lis subsequent performances as an advocate and Senator did not. as has sometimes happened 
in similar cases, prove that the praise so freely lavished was undeserved, but served rather to 
show that it was in the main deserved. At the succeeding (lection in Hunterdon county, 
Mr. Southard was elected a member of the Assembly, and Mahlon Dickerson, then one of 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 89 

the justices of the Supreme Court, being elected Governor, Southard was immediately chosen 
by the joint meeting to succeed him in the Court. The vote was twenty-nine for Southard, 
and twenty-four for Joseph Mcllvaine, determined by the location of the members or by 
personal preferences, both of them belonging to the Democratic party. 

Mr. Southard sat as a judge for five years, aid was also the Reporter of the Decisions 
of the Supreme Court. Although his true place was not as a judge, he maintained a 
respectable standing, and had the confidence of the bar. His opinions, as reported, wen- 
well considered and happily expressed. One of them, pronounced soon after he took his 
seat on the bench (1 South., 339), is a good example of his style of writing. 

Soon after his appointment as Justice of the Supreme Court, Mr. Southard removed his 
residence to Trenton, and it would seem that he was willing to have relinquished his place as 
judge and returneJ to his profession, having, in November, 1817, received twenty-six votes 
for the appointment of Attorney-General against the twenty-seven which at that time elected 
Mr. Frelinghuysen. In 1S20 a new revision of the statutes of the State having been made, 
he and Charles Ewing prepared it for publication, and superintended the printing. In the fall 
of that year he was elected one of the Presidential Electors, and had the pleasure of recording 
his vote for his friend Mr. Monroe, who was re-elected President, receiving every vote but 
one, a unanimity which has not happened in any other case. 

I became personally acquainted with him when I was licensed as a counsellor in 1N1N. 
In the fall of 1S20 I was elected a member of Assembly from the county of Cumberland, on 
a Union ticket formed in opposition to the regular Democratic ticket, as an expression of 
adherence to the policy of President Monroe, which to a great extent ignored the old party 
disputes. So entirely had this spirit the ascendancy in the Legislature of that year, that the 
principle was adopted and regularly acted upon, of allowing the representatives of each 
county to take the responsibility of making the county appointments without regard to party, 
the other members never interfering unless they disagreed. This policy was interrupted the 
next year ; but the two succeeding years it was reinstated. Party politics hail but little 
influence in the State until the success of Jackson in 1828. 

The term of James J. Wilson, one of the Senators from New Jersey, expired on the 3d 
of March, 182 1, so that it became necessary to re-elect him or choose a successor, during 
the sitting of the Legislature. Mr. Wilson was the editor and proprietor of the Trenton True 
American, the organ of the Democratic party, and had for nearly twenty years, in connection 
with Judge Rossell and a few others, controlled its management in the State. Unfortunately, 
he had within a few years become intemperate in his habits, a fact which was denied by his 
adherents, and which many of his friends were slow to believe, but which had become known 
to me and some others. Under these circumstances, a number of those who had always 
been Democrats, including Pennington of Essex (a brother of the judge), determined, if 
it should be found practicable, to elect some other person. Upon canvassing the members of 



go ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

the two Houses, it was found that a majority were of this opinion. When a regular 
preliminary meeting of those opposed to Wilson was held, John Rutherford, then residing 
near Newark, and Samuel L. Southard, were brought forward as the candidates. Having a 
decided preference myself for Mr. Southard, and believing it objectionable to select an 
Eastern man (the other Senator being Mahlon Dickerson, of Morris county), I insisted that 
\\'< st Jersey must have the preference, and this consideration induced a majority of those 
present to vote for Southard. When the joint meeting was held in November, he was 
elected by a vote of thirty in his favor, against twenty-four for Wilson. 

In a few days after his election as Senator, Mr. Southard resigned his office as Justice of 
the Supreme Court, and Ford was chosen his successor. Mr. Wilson did not attend in the 
Senate at its next meeting, ami soon resigned. Southard was appointed to fill the vacancy, and 
took his seat February i6, 182 1. Congress was then in the midst of the excitement growing 
out of the question of admitting Missouri as a State of the Union, which was resisted on 
account of two clauses in its Constitution, one of which (Sec. 26, of Article 3d) directed that 
the Legislature should prohibit the immigration of free negroes into the State, and the other 
forbade the abolition of slavery. The House of Representatives had, by a considerable 
majority, voted against admitting the State. On the 22d day of February, Mr. Clay moved in 
that House a resolution, "That a committee be appointed on the part of this House, jointly 
with such committee as may be appointed on the part of the Senate, to consider and report 
to the Senate and to the House whether it is expedient or not to make provision 
for the admission of Missouri into the Union, on the same footing as the original States, and 
lor the due execution of the laws of the United States within Missouri ; and if not, whether 
any other, and what, provision adapted to her actual condition ought to be made by law." 

To this resolution Mr. |ames A. Hamilton must refer, in a statement which he makes in 
his recently-published "Reminiscences" (page 443), given on the authority of Ogden 
Hoffman, son-in-law to S., to whom Southard related the facts. It is as follows : — 

" Mr. Southard was a member of the Senate of the United States, young and recent ; Mr. 
Clay, an old, distinguished and influential member of the House of Representatives, pending 
the agitation of that question which excited the deepest interest and anxiety in all parts of the 
country. Mr. Southard prepared resolutions, the identical ones afterward introduced and 
pissed. He showed them to his political friends, Mr. Clay among others. They were 
approved, and it was agreed that Mr. Southard should, on a certain day, as soon as the 
morning business was over, present them to the Senate. On the morning of that day, Southard 
being prepared to move those resolutions, received a message from Mr. Clay, requesting a 
meeting on the resolutions. Southard went there. Clay urged that it would be better that 
the resolutions should be brought forward in the House of Representatives, and desired Mr. 
Southard to give him the resolutions, saying he would, with Mr. Southard's consent, bring 
something of the same kind forward in tin; House. Mr. Southard assented. Mr. Clay took 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 9 \ 

the resolutions, and without change in any respect whatever, offered the resolutions in the 
House. They were carried in both Houses. The question was settled; the agitation ceased. 
Mr. Clay has had Irom that time the whole merit of that measure. He never has given to Mr. 
Southard the credit of any part " 

Mr. Southard was one of the Committee of the Senate, and Mr. Clay was at the head of 
the House Committee. On the 26th of February, the latter reported the following resolutions, 
which, being adopted by a majority of both Houses, and assented to by the Legislature of 
Missouri, ended the struggle. It would seem from the tenor of Mr. Hamilton's statement, 
that this was also drafted by Mr. Southard : — 

"Resolved, That Missouri shall be admitted into this Union on an equal footing with the 
original States in all respects whatever, upon the fundamental condition that the fourth clause 
of the twenty-sixth section of the third article of the Constitution submitted on the part of 
said State to Congress, shall never be construed to authorize the passage of any law, and that 
no law shall be passed in conformity thereto, by which any citizen of either of the States in 
this Union shall be excluded from the enjoyment of any of the privileges and immunities to 
which such citizen is entitled under the Constitution of the United States ; provided that the 
Legislature of said State by a solemn public act, shall declare the assent of the said State to 
the said fundamental condition, and shall transmit to the President of the United States, on or 
before the fourth Monday in November next, an authentic copy of the said act ; upon the 
receipt whereof, the President, by proclamation, shall announce the fact; whereupon and 
without any further proceedings on the part of Congress, the admission of the said State into 
this Union shall be considered as complete." 

At the session of Congress commencing in December, 1S21, Mr. Southard spoke on 
several occasions, but made no special effort to attract attention. In a letter to me, written 
during the winter session of 1822-23, he refers to various subjects, and, among others, to a 
speech he had made on a bill before the Senate, respecting imprisonment for debt. I le 
remarks: "The editor of the National Inlelligeiicer told me he intended to publish my 
remarks. I have no ambition, however, to see myself in print, and should be quite willing 
he would let me alone." 

In this letter he refers to the question of the next President, and says: " My objections 
to Adams, Clay, and Crawford, arc the same which you mentioned, and I have others which you 
have not mentioned ; but I do not coincide in the belie! that Mr. Calhoun is out ol the 
question ; he seems to me quite as likely to succeed as any one ot the others." llis prel 
erence for Mr. Calhoun continued to be expressed, until near the flection ol Mr. Adams. It 
must be remembered that this was while Mr. Calhoun was Secretary ot War, a derided 
supporter of measures of internal improvement, and before, as Mr. Webster in his great 
speech in answer to Hayne expressed it, "that star in its ascension veered oft in an unex- 
pected direction." He had not then advanced those ultra State right doctrines, which 



92 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

afterwards did so much mischief hut was the favorite of u You rig America,' as well in the 
North as South. 

In a letter addressed to me, from Washington, by Richard S. Coxe, Esq., who had 

recently removed from New Jersey, and who was for years a leading lawyer there, dated 
March 2, 1 823, he remarks: "You have been more acquainted with Southard than I ever 
was, until I came here; but 1 have found him one of the very finest fellows I ever knew. 
Liberal in his principles, high-minded and honorable, and in his conduct towards myself as 
earnest and kind as if I had been his brother. In one respect, I have found him very different 
from what I had been led to believe of him. 1 le is as thorough a Jerseyman as any you have 
ever met with. I have had the pleasure of spending many pleasant hours with him and 
Holcomb this winter. They art: both great favorites here, but I am inclined to think that 
Southard has more weight here than all the residue of the Jersey delegation." 

A subsequent letter, dated March 31, 1823, remarks: "I understand to-day that Mr. 
Thompson (Smith Thompson, Secretary of the Navy) has not positively determined whether 
or not to accept the proffered appointment of a seat on the bench. It will probably be 
determined before many days. Should he accept, his present situation will unquestionably be 
offered to our friend Southard. I trust he will make no difficulty about it, but come among 
us, and live where he is much beloved and respected. I am in hopes Jersey is to hold up her 
head again, for 1 am sure she has within her men of as much talent as any State in the Union, 
in proportion to her numbers, and until I came here I had no idea how dear all her interests 
are to me." 

While this letter is before me, it may interest others, as it certainly does me, if I quote 
from it the writer's remarks upon those he had heard of the then bar of the Supreme Court. 
I le was a well-educated lawyer, of good literary taste and culture, and writes the first impres- 
sion, and perhaps somewhat hasty, but in the main, just conclusions of a young man. Webster 
had not then become so well known as a great lawyer and orator as he afterwards was, and in 
ordinary cases never appeared to great advantage. 

"The bar, though able, is different from what I had anticipated. I candidly think that 
causes are, upon the average, argued with as much ability and learning at the bar of our 
Supreme Court at Trenton as at Washington. Take him altogether, I consider Sergeant as 
the first man here; he unites sound learning, great industry, and an agreeable elocution, in a 
higher degree than any others. Emmet is perhaps his equal, but he possesses more of the 
vivacity ot manner and declamation ; the feeling he shows-seems to flow from his interest for 
his clients ; Sergeant's from his desire to obtain a just decision. You can better understand 
the whole of this distinction than any language can explain it. Webster is able, ingenious, 
and learned, very acute, and possessed of a logical mind ; but he seems to make the argument 
of a cause a mere matter of heartless business ; he is dry as tinder, awkward in his manner, 
by no means prepossessing in his appearance, and I think would argue with as much feeling 



OF BlOGkAPH\ $3 

if he was discussing the right of property in a rusty nail, as it the salvation ol the universe 
hung upon the cause. Harper is too verbose to be either very agreeable or very powerful. 
Wirt is more argumentative than declamatory ; but he seems incapable of any great 
continuity of argument ; he argues to gain his point rather than his cause. Clay seems to 
think that Mr. Clay must make a handsome speech, while he probably never had a glimpse of 
what beauty consisted in, for he has no delicacy of taste in anything. Jones has every natural 
talent in such perfection that he never will be half as great as if he had a smaller 
portion of it." 

Probably the comment on Mr. Clay will strike readers at the present day as most wanting 
in just appreciation of his talents ; but it must be remembered that he was then a leading 
Democrat ; Mr. Coxe had always been a Federalist. He did not rank Mr. Clay any lower as 
a lawyer than I have heard him placed by Judge Washington and Richard Stockton. 

A letter from Mr. Southard, dated August 23, 1823, is as follows : " My dear sir. Mr. 
Monroe has requested me to accept the Secretaryship of the Navy. I see many difficulties 
before me in doing it. May I beg of you, as a personal friend, to tell me what is best ; you 
know as well or better than myself? In great haste, yours, etc." 

Of course I advised him, as I supposed he wished, and as I certainly thought right for him 
and right for the country, that he should accept the position. I had not then heard what I was 
afterwards told, that, before his election as Senator, he had been assured by Mr. Monroe, that 
if he should obtain a seat in the Senate, and a suitable opportunity should offer, he would 
place him in his Cabinet. It was said that one of his friends, to whom he wrote a similar letter 
to that addressed to me, wrote to him for answer — I suppose, however, more in jest than in 
earnest : " No ; stick to your law and to politics, about which you know something ; but let 
alone the navy, about which you know nothing." It may indeed seem to some persons, not 
very well acquainted with the workings of our government, that a lawyer is not the most likely 
person to make a satisfactory Secretary of Navy. But I believe experience has shown that 
this is an error. A large majority of those who have held that office have been educated as 
lawyers, and those of a different class have for the most part proved failures. It is certain 
that Mr. Southard so managed his department as to entirely satisfy the two Presidents under 
whom he acted, and as to gain the respect of the officers of the navy who were subject to his 
orders. His devotion to the best interests of that department of the public service was 
untiring, and his success in managing it was generally acknowledged. 

When John Ouincy Adams was elected President and formed his Cabinet about eighteen 
months after Mr. Southard had been made Secretary of the Navy, there weir, as is usual in 
such cases, many speculations and many intrigues relating to his place. Mr. Clay had made 
the mistaken, so fatal to his success as an aspirant for the presidency, of accepting the office of 
Secretary of State, then supposed to be in the right line of the succession, alter he had by 
his vote and influence aided in electing Adams, in preference to Jackson, who had obtained 



y4 /.XCYCLOPsEDlA 

a plurality of the electoral votes, and whose popularity proved so irresistible. He was 
naturally anxious that his associates in the Cabinet should be not merely men fit for their 
offices, but politicians who could command an influential popular vote; and it was well 
understood he was desirous that Mr. Southard should give place to some stronger man. But 
Mr. Adams declined to be governed by such motives. Probably no President since the days 
of Washington has endeavored to regard the fitness of the person appointed, for his station, 
so exclusively as Mr. Adams. He declined to remove Mr. Southard, and declined also to 
appoint William Henry Harrison Commander-in-chief of the Army, as Mr. Clay wished, 
conferring the appointment on General Macomb, as entitled to it by seniority of rank. How 
far Mr. Southard was acquainted at the time with the course of Mr. Clay in this matter, I do 
not know. He spoke and wrote of him to me as if he had his entire confidence. In a letter 
dating January, 1828, he writes, " 1 have been taught by my intercourse with him, to place a 
high estimate on his talents and worth." Subsequently he was forced to the conclusion that 
he could not reckon him among his friends. 

From the election of Mr. Monroe, in 1S16, to the election of Jackson, in 1828, the 
political relations of the men taking an active part in party proceedings assumed a new 
shape. The old Federalists were utterly dispirited and ceased to act as a party. Many of 
the Democrats were tired of the bitter conflicts through which they had passed, and were 
ready to meet the overtures of their opponents, and to enjoy peace. Mr. Monroe belonged 
to this party, and in 1820 was re-elected unanimously. There were, however, still many of 
the Democrats who for various reasons did not sympathize with this feeling. At the election 
for his successor, in 1824, the old party organizations were powerless, and new ones had not 
become so far consolidated as to exercise much influence. The electoral votes were divided 
between Jackson, Adams, Crawford, and Clay; Mr. Calhoun receiving nearly all the votes 
as Vice-President of those who voted for Jackson and Adams, a large majority of the whole. 
And so confused were the prevailing political opinions, that both Jackson and Adams were 
voted for by some as Democrats and by others as substantially Federalists. As a general 
rule, those Federalists who had been special admirers of General I lamilton voted for Jackson, 
considering Mr. Adams as a deserter. The old and more earnest Democrats in Virginia and 
elsewhere were for Crawford, but his ill-health and other circumstances put him behind. 
When it was ascertained that the election would devolve on Congress, which bod)' was 
obliged to select the President from the three having the most votes, of whom Mr. Clay was 
not one, the final result was very doubtful. Clay was Speaker of the House of Representa- 
tives, and much depended on his course. There had been a misunderstanding between him 
and Mr. Adams; but there were many reasons for believing that he would prefer him to 
Jackson, although the latter had received a plurality of the votes. No one could foresee 
what the future political combinations would be, and it was obvious that this would depend 
very much upon the course taken by the influential members of Congress. It was said, and 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 95 

I have reason to believe with truth, that at one time the members from Virginia had 
determined to give the vote of that State for Mr. Adams. Had this been done, it would 
have been such a decided recognition of his claims as a Democrat, that in all probability his 
administration would have been received and supported by that party, and the friends of 
Jackson would have found it necessary to rally under a different name. This was the opinion 
of Mr. Adams himself, strongly expressed in a letter to Walsh, the editor of a newspaper in 
Philadelphia, which he published. The result, however, was, that when it was ascertained 
that Mr. Clay and his special friends would vote for Adams, and that in all probability he 
would be the leading man in the new Administration, the vote of Virginia was withheld from 
Mr. Adams and cast for Crawford. 

Pretty soon after the inauguration of Mr. Adams a very decided hostility to him was 
manifested in Congress and throughout the country. To most of the rank and file of the old 
Democrats his very name was odious. Mr. Southard found his position by no means an easy 
one. Mr. Dickerson, the leading Senator from New Jersey, was not his friend, and his 
successor, Mr. Mcllvaine, was not able to render him a very efficient support. His letters 
have frequent references to this state of things. Of the date, 1 6th April, 1S26, he writes: 
"I entered this Administration with a perfect understanding that it was to be a continuation of 
Mr. Monroe's, founded on the same principles, governed by the same policy. I have yet seen 
nothing to make me doubt that it is so, and as such it merits and shall receive my support. 
When it ceases to be so, I cease to form a part of it. In taking the course I do, and in 
devoting my best exertions to what I suppose to be the best interests of the country, I have 
hoped for the support of New Jersey. Should this hope fail me, my course is not and cannot 
be doubtful. I cannot burden an Administration with the opposition of my friends. I see no 
reason to apprehend this result; but I am prepared tor it. The representation of New 
Jersey, considering that they voted for General Jackson, seemed disposed to act a friendly 
and fair part to the present Administration. From this remark there is one exception in tin 
Senate." The New Jersey delegation in Congress voted for Jackson on the avowed ground 
that he had received the electoral vote of the State. 

In fuly, after this letter was written, I casually met Mr. Southard at Trenton, and he 
entered into an earnest conversation with me in regard to the election oi a Senator, it being 
rumored that Mr. Mcllvaine would resign, or at all events decline a re-election. Much 
anxiety was expressed that some person should be selected upon whom he could depend as a 
personal friend and a decided supporter of the Administration ; and his preference seemed to 
be for Dr. Holcombe, then a member of Congress, who was a warm personal friend from their 
college days, ami who it was known was ambitious of a seat in the Senate. 

I happened to know, from confidential correspondence with Holcombe, what I found he 
did not know, that Holcombe was very much opposed to Mr. Adams, and had made up his 
mind to go for Jackson. I therefore advised him to see the doctor, and for that purpose he 



96 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

rode out to bis residence at Allentown. The result of the interview was that lie found it 
necessary to relinquish that purpose. Shortly afterwards Mcllvane died, and at the ensuing 
joint meeting, in the fall of 1X26, Ephraim Bateman, friendly enough to Mr. Adams, and not 
hostile to Southard, but not to be reckoned as a personal friend, was elected by his own vote, 
in opposition to Frelinghuysen, upon whom he might have depended as a friend of himself 
and of the Administration. 1 Iolcombe, who was a gentleman of fine culture and good talents, 
but who had no great fitness for political life, died at an early age in 182S. 

As the final contest between Adams and Jackson drew near, it became more and more 
apparent that Mr. Adams must fail. But his supporters, and Mr. Southard among them, were 
slow to learn this. In the fall of 1827 I was at Albany, as one of the commissioners for 
settling the line between New Jersey and New York. Mr. Clinton was then Governor, and 
the Legislature of New York was holding an extra session. Happening to be engaged 
writing in my room at the hotel, a door into an adjoining room was so open that I necessarily 
overheard a conversation between two Democratic members of the Legislature, in which one 
announced to the other that it was settled that the Bucktail party, as the Democrats of that 
State were then called, would declare for Jackson. I had also heard it stated that Mrs. 
Clinton, who was used as the straw which showed how the wind blew, had openly declared 
her preference for Jackson ; and in corroboration of this, Mr. Cambrelling, then a leading 
Democratic politician, stated unreservedly at the dinner-table, that New York would vote for 
lackson, assigning as the reason that Clinton was in his favor, and the Bucktails would be, so 
that Mr. Adams would be left without the support of either of the organized parties of that 
State ; all of which proved true. Clinton died before Jackson's election, but most of his 
friends supported him, ami had he lived he would no doubt have been the Secretary of 
State. 

When I returned home, I informed Mr. Southard ot what I had heard, and stated my 
own impression that Mr. Adams would be defeated. He answered, of the date of October 
7, 1S27: "I have still stronger hopes and higher confidence than you entertain about the 
result of the coming presidential contest, and if I can find the time will, in a few days, give 
you my reasons. I have in my visit to Albany had some opportunity of looking into the state 
of feeling and opinion in New York. I have come to a different conclusion from that men- 
tioned by you." The result was that the electoral vote of New York was divided, a majority 
voting for Jackson. 

New fersey gave a decided majority for Mr. Adams. A very considerable number of 
the old Democrats, among whom I was myself numbered, with most of my old political 
friends who had been in public life, supported him, while many of the old Federal leaders 
went for Jackson. The change in the political relations of the leading men of the State at 
this time was very remarkable. Many of the old Federalists became life-long Democrats, 
among whom were Wall, Vroom, Ryerson, Haines; while some of them, like Barker and 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 97 

Chetwood, after Jackson's time went back to their old party relations. Many old Democrats, 
like the Penningtons, became life-long opponents of the Democratic party; while others, 
although opposed to Jackson, afterwards acted with the Democrats. As a general rule, the 
mass of voters adhered to the party names, as they still do. 

I agreed with Mr. Southard in thinking that General Jackson had many high qualities, 
but besides the objection that his popularity was merely that of a successful soldier, his 
peculiar temper rendered him a dangerous man to be at the head of the government. His 
integrity was unquestionable, and he had an indomitable will ; but his violent passions made 
him liable to very improper influences. The manner in which he removed the deposits of 
the Government money from the Hank of the United States, corrupt as that institution proved 
to be, and unnecessary, indeed injurious, as such an institution really was to the business of 
the country, was decisive evidence of his unfitness for the station he occupied. As to his 
removals from office, merely upon political grounds, improper as the practice was and is, and 
first reduced to a system during his presidency, I regard it rather as the result of those influ- 
ences which raised him to the office than as being his individual act. The truth is, he was the 
first chief magistrate, after Washington, really elected by the people. At his election the 
I )emocratic element of our government first manifested its full power ; his majority in New 
Jersey, and probably elsewhere, was greatly increased by the votes of obscure persons who 
had never voted before. The framers of the Constitution intended that the electors chosen 
for the purpose should exercise their own judgments, and choose the fittest man. This was 
found impracticable from the first. But still, until 1S2S, the political leaders, through a Con- 
gressional caucus, chose the President; the popular mind was never stirred to its depths; a 
full vote was not obtained, and the mass of those who did vote did not feel that the choice 
was theirs. Now all was changed. The consequence was that the busy politicians, whose 
personal efforts influenced the voters and brought them to the polls demanded what they 
naturally deemed their share of the spoils, and demanded it in tones that admitted of no 
denial. Parties in a popular government, as was wittily said by Charles Townsend, a leading 
politician in the time of George II., " parties, like snakes, are propelled by their tails." Noth- 
ing apparently can free us from this bad system but such an experience of its evils as will 
lead to an efficient civil service bill, requiring competitive examination of candidates. 

The Legislature of New Jersey, in the fall of 1S28, contained a decided majority of the 
friends of Mr. Adams. Ephraim Bateman was compelled by bad health to resign his seat in 
the Senate. Southard was still at Washington, but had written to me in November, "I have 
always looked forward to a return to Trenton as the place of my permanent residence, ami it 
is my intention to return there immediately after the fourth of March next. I am, and always 
have been poor, and must look to my daily exertions for the support of my family." At the 
joint meeting held in [anuary, [829, he was put forward as a candidate for the Senate; but 
the late William l>. Kwing, then Speaker, and several others were also candidates, and Southard 

9 






9 8 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

was opposed upon the ground that he was not an inhabitant of the State, as the Senator elected 
was required to be by the Constitution. However reasonable this objection might have been 
as a ground for preferring another person, it was not the interpretation which has prevailed 
in Congress. After numerous ineffectual votes, a resolution was offered and carried by a 
majority of the votes, that he was not eligible to the office, and the final result was that Mahlon 
Dickerson was chosen. At a subsequent joint meeting held in February, Theodore 
Frelinghuysen was elected Senator to fill the vacancy until the ensuing fourth of March, 
occasioned by the resignation of Dickerson, and for the full term of six years commencing at 
that date. Shortly afterwards Southard was chosen Attorney-General of the State by a 
majority of one vote, in the place of Mr. Frelinghuysen, who resigned. He returned with his 
family to Trenton. A letter from Rev. Dr. J. W. Alexander to Dr. Hall, dated Trenton, May 
ii, 1829, states: "Mr. Southard is very much broken, stoops like a man of seventy, and 
seems melancholy. Ii he recovers, he will probably be our next Governor." 

In another letter dated July 30, he writes : " Mr. Southard has been making a speech at 
Newark, which was attended by a vast audience, is greatly admired, and will be printed. 
I should like to introduce you to him. He is one of the most agreeable companions I have 
e\ it found, and pays us far more attention than we could ever demand of him. His popularity 
in this State is rapidly rising to its former acme." 

In 1N22 he had been chosen one of the trustees of Princeton College. In 1832 the 
University of Pennsylvania conferred on him the degree of LL. D. His health seems always 
to have been delicate. He was able, however, to enter upon the duties of Attorney-General, 
and as the office was then without more than a nominal salary, he was obliged to select the 
counties affording the best income from the fees belonging to it, and soon had a large practise 
as a lawyer. I remember that, meeting him in the fall of 1832, after it was known that his 
party had succeeded in electing a majority of the members of the Legislature, he remark' d to 
me that he should be called upon by his friends to again take the place of Senator ; but that 
he preferred to be left where he was, as he was now for the first time in his life making some- 
thing more than a support. I hid no doubt his best judgment dictated this course ; but I did 
not expect, indeed he did not pretend, that he would have the firmness to resist the temptation 
again to be prominent in political life. It must be acknowledged that, like many other of our 
men in public office, he was consumed by the fever of ambition. 

When the time came, and the joint meeting assembled, he allowed himself to be elected 
Governor ; and then with great difficulty prevailed on his friends to elect him Senator, thus 
producing the necessity of resigning as Governor, and helping so to distract his party that 
they lost their majority in the State, and did not regain it for several years. As he was 
Governor only about three months, he held but one term of the Court of Chancery, ami trans- 
acted no business of any consequence. He took the opportunity, however, when called upon 
to deliver to the Legislature in January, 1833, documents received from the Governor of 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 99 

South Carolina containing the celebrated ordinance of that State professing to nullify certain 
laws of Congress, to address a long and very able message to the Council and Assembly, 
denying in the most absolute and positive manner the right of any State to determine for 
itself the constitutionality of an Act of Congress, and concurring in the views promulgated by 
General Jackson in his proclamation, although expressing "regret at expressions which might 
be regarded as personal invective." 

In 1827 Mr. Southard delivered the anniversary address before the Columbian Institute 
at Washington, a society formed to promote the claims of science, of which he was a member, 
that was published and attracted much notice as an eloquent argument in favor of the object 
of the association. In 1830 he delivered a somewhat, similar address before the Newark 
Mechanics' Association, and in 1832 he delivered three different addresses, which were 
published. One of them was an eulogium upon his friend Chief Justice Ewing, and was a fit 
tribute of respect and affection to the character of a great and good man, whose sudden and 
unexpected death when at the meridian of his powers and usefulness, so shocked all who 
knew him. Afterwards he was selected at Washington to prepare and deliver a similar 
discourse on the professional character and virtues of William Wirt. 

These and some other productions of a similar nature showed him to have a peculiar 
talent for compositions of this description, and that he was entitled to rank with Sergeant, 
Webster, Everett, and Binney in fullness of knowledge and aptness of expression. An 
address before the societies at Princeton, delivered in 1837, in which he took for his topic the 
importance of the study of the Bible, in forming the character of literary and scientific men, 
of scholars of every grade and every occupation, attracted great and deserved attention. It 
is a remarkable effort, full not only of wise and fatherly admonition, but of the most apt and 
beautiful classical quotations and allusions, illustrated by references to the writings of 
Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, and other great authors of ancient times, and contrasts of their 
failures with the perfect moral law of the Scriptures. His concluding words deserve ever to 
sound in the ears of students and of lawyers : — 

" Of all men, American scholars, and you among them, ought not to be ignorant of 
anything which this book contains. If Cicero could declare that the Laws of the Twelve 
Tables were worth all the libraries of the philosophers, if they were the carmen iiecessariuiu 
of the Roman youth, how laboriously, manu nocturnes diumaque, ought you to investigate its 
contents, and inscribe them upon your hearts. You owe to them the blessed civil institutions 
under which you live, and the glorious freedom which you enjoy ; and if these are to be 
perpetuated it can only be by a regard to those principles. Civil and religious liberty is more 
indebted to Luther and Calvin, and their compeers of the Reformation, anil to the Puritans 
and Protestants of England, and to the Huguenots of F ranee, than to any other men that ever 
lived in the annals of time. They led the way to that freedom, firmness, and independence 
ot thought and investigation, and the adoption of these principles, as the guide in social 






iOo ENCYCLOPsEDl. \ 

government, as well as private actions, which created a personal self-respect and firmness in 
its defense, which conducted us to a sense of equal rights and privileges, and eventually to 
the adoption of free-written constitutions as the limitations of power. 

"Be you imitators of them. Make your scholarship subservient to the support of the 
same unchanging principles. They are as necessary now as ever they were to the salvation 
of your country, and all that is clear to your hopes. The world is yet to be proselyted to 
them. Religion and liberty must go hand in hand, or America cannot be established, the 
bondage of the European man broken, Africa enlightened, and Asia regenerated. And even 
here we arc not without peril. Look abroad ; are not the pillars of our edifice shaken? Is 
not law disregarded? Are not moral and social principles weakened? Are not the wretched 
advocates of infidelity busy? The sun has indeed risen upon our mountain tops ; but it has 
not yet scattered the damps and the darkness of the valleys. The passions are roused and 
misled. Ancient institutions are scorned. Our refuge is in the firm purpose of educated and 
moral men. Draw, then, your rules of action from the only safe authority. Hang your banner 
on their outer wall. Stand by them in trial and in triumph. Dare to maintain them in every 
position and every vicissitude, and make your appeal to the source from which they are drawn. 
And then, come what may, contempt or fame, you cannot fall ; and your progress at every step 
will be greeted by the benedictions of the wise and good." 

After his return to the Senate, in [833, Mr. Southard took an active part in the proceed- 
ings of that body, speaking and voting generally in the minority, until the close of the 
Administration of Mr. Van Buren in 1 S 4 1 . In the fall of [838 he was reelected to another 
full term. In 1841 he was elected president of the Senate, and upon the retirement of Vice- 
President Tyler, filled that office permanently until his death, and ha 1 the entire confidence of 
all parties, as a dignified, impartial and able presiding officer. But he was not without his 
trials. When Harrison was selected as the candidate of the Whig party, and the delegates 
to the convention from New Jersey cast their votes for General Scott, Mr. Clay, taking for 
granted that this was done by the advice of Mr. Southard, openly accused him of hostility to 
him. I heard the late Roswell L. Colt, of Paterson, say he -was present when Mr. Clay "abused 
him shamefully." The fact was, however, that Mr. Southard had no part in the matter. Of 
all the public men I have known, he seemed to have the least tact and skill as a party leader. 
This was the more remarkable because he was always a favorite with his party. He was 
engaging in his personal intercourse, and was justly considered their ablest man, but he had 
no skill as an organizer, and indeed no faculty of appreciating the capabilities of others as 
party leaders. 

Returning to his practise at the bar, when he ceased to be Secretary of the Navy, he 
soon had a large business. He cannot be said to have been a profoundly learned lawyer, but 
he was a skillful advocate, generally clear and correct in his conceptions, seizing readily tin- 
strong points of his cause, and bringing them forward by a distinct and lucid statement, and 



OF BIOGRAPH\ 101 

presenting his arguments with great earnestness and force. 1 lis voice was usually pleasant, 
and had great compass and power, but he not unfrequently pitched his tones so high as to 
render it exceedingly harsh and disagreeable. He did not always guard his propositions 
with due care. I remember that shortly after he was first made Senator, I was retained to 
argue an admiralty case before Judge Washington, and, learning that I was to oppose Southard, 
I expressed to General Wall my apprehensions that he would he too strong for me. Prompt 
to encourage: a beginner, his reply was, "You have no reason to be afraid; he will make a 
strong assault, but he is apt to forget that in a hard combat a shield is often as necessary as a 
sword." I do not remember the particulars of the argument; but as my client had a decree 
in his favor, I was satisfied. 

In 1838 he was appointed the president of the Morris Canal and Banking Company, and 
from that time took up his residence in Jersey City. It is not probable that he possessed any 
special financial ability, or that the directors of this institution expected him to perform any 
onerous duties connected with the station. But he had a high character for integrity and 
ability, and was now universally known and respected throughout the country — characteristics 
for which it was thought worth while to give him a good salary, and thus obtain the benefit of 
his name in aid of an institution that needed the support of a strong pillar. 

He died at the house of his wife's brother, in Fredericksburg, June 26, 1842, having been 
obliged by increasing illness to leave his place as president of the Senate several weeks 
previously. Upon his death becoming known to Congress, the usual resolutions of respei I 
and condolence were adopted. In the Senate, Mr. King of Alabama, afterwards elected 
Vice-President of the United States, who did not then belong to the same party, said of him 
with much feeling, and I believe with much sincerity and truth: "It has been my fortune for 
many years to be intimately acquainted with the distinguished man whose tbath has just 
been announced. I have known him in private life, and can bear testimony to his kindness 
of heart, amiableness of disposition, ami uniform courtesy. I have known him in public 
stations, and can with the same truthfulness testify to his courtesy, and ability with which he 
discharged the various trusts confided to his care." 

The most felicitous description of him is contained in a letter from Rev. Dr. J. W. 
Alexander, who was several years pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Trenton, to Dr. Hall, 
after his death: — 

"Samuel L. Southard was also a member of the congregation, ami a friend of all that 
promised its good. More sprightly and versatile than Mr. Ewing, he resembled a tropical 
tree of rapid growth. Few men ever attained earlier celebrity in New Jersev. This, perhaps. 
tended to produce a certain character which showed itself in good natured egotism. Mr. 
Southard was a man of genius and eloquence, who made great impressions on a first 
interview, or by a single argument. He loved society, ami shone in company. His 
entertainments will be long remembered by the associates of his youth. 






102 ■ ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

"It is not my province to speak of his great efforts at the bar ; he was always named 
after Stockton, Johnson and Ewing, and with Frelinghuysen, Wood, Williamson, and their 
coevals. Having been bred under the discipline of Dr. Finley, at Baskingridge, he was 
thoroughly versed in Presbyterian doctrine and ways, loving and preferring this branch of the 
Church to the day of his death. Defection from its ranks gave him sincere grief, as I am 
ready more largely to attest if need be. In those days of his prime, Mr. Southard was 
greatly under the salutary influence of the Chief Justice, who was his mentor. I think he 
felt the loss of this great man in some important points. So earnestly and even tenderly did 
he yield himself to divine impressions, that his friends confidently expected that he would 
become a communicant. During this period he was an ardent advocate of the temperance 
society, then in its early stage. I remember attending a meeting at Lawrenceville, in 
company with my learned friend, the present Chief Justice, where Mr. Southard, following 
Mr. Frelinghuysen, make an impassioned address in favor of abstinence and the pledge. In 
regard to religious things, the change to Washington did not tend to increase solemnity or 
zeal. I have been informed that Mr. Southard felt the deep impressions of divine truth at 
the close of his days. As a young minister, I received from him the affectionate forbearance 
of an elder brother, and I shall always cherish his memory with love." 

L. O. C. Elmer, LL. D. 





C?5Lf^7, 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 103 



VROOM, PETER D., Governor and Chancellor of New Jersey, was born in the 
township of Hillsborough, County of Somerset, December 12, 1791, and was the 
youngest son of Colonel Peter D. Vroom, an old and much respected citizen of 
Somerset. 

Colonel Vroom was born in 1 745. Early in life he lived in New York, whence he came 
to reside on the Raritan, near the junction of the north and south branches, living there until 
his death in 1831. He married Elsie Bogert, like himself, of Dutch descent. He was one of 
the first to raise a military company, at the commencement of the Revolutionary War, in 
which he served as lieutenant and captain, and was appointed major in 1777, and afterwards 
lieutenant-colonel. He led a company at the battle of Germantown, and was in service 
during the war. He occupied during his life almost every office of trust in the county : 
sheriff, clerk of the pleas, and justice of the peace ; and was a member for many years either 
of the Assembly or Council. He was also an elder in the Dutch Reformed Church, to which 
he belonged, and in all the relations he thus sustained was highly esteemed, living until the 
son who bore his name had become Governor ; hence the latter was long designated and 
known as Peter D. Vroom, junior. 

Governor Vroom prepared for college at the Somerville Academy, and in 1806 entered 
the junior class of Columbia College in New York, graduating in 1808. He then became a 
student with George McDonald of Somerville, and was licensed as an attorney in May, 1 <S 1 3 . 
He became a counselor in 1816, and was called to be a sergeant in 1828. 

He first opened an office as a lawyer at Schooley's Mountain, in Morris county, where 
he remained about eighteen months, from whence he went to Hackettstown, then in Sussex 
county, where he remained about two years, removing from that place to Flemington, and 
enjoying during all this time quite as good a practise as is usually obtained by young lawyers. 
While residing here he married Miss Dumont, a daughter of Colonel Dumont of his native 
county, whose sister was the wife of Frederick Frelinghuysen. He was Prosecutor of the 
Pleas, by appointment of Attorney-General Frelinghuysen. A compliment paid to him by 
Chief Justice Kirkpatrick, so unusual from that quarter as to excite much remark. In the 
opinion pronounced in the case of Kline vs. Ramsay, 1 South., 141, he took occasion to refer 
to Mr. Vroom, as the counsel for the defendant, "whose discernment and accuracy is 
inferior to none of his standing at the bar." 

In 1820 he returned to his native county, and resided in Somerville more than twenty 
years. 

Up to 1S24 he had taken but little part in political affairs, having been indeed, as a 
Federalist, attached to the party hopelessly in the minority. In this year he espoused with 
considerable earnestness the support of General Jackson, in common with his lather and 



104 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

many of the leading Federalists of the State, who objected to Adams for having deserted 
their party and joined that of Mr. Jefferson. They were also strongly attracted to his 
support, by the fact, first brought out by his Democratic opposers to injure his popularity with 
that party, that in [816 he had addressed a letter to President Monroe, in which he wrote: 
"Everything depends on the selection of your Ministry. In every selection, party and party 
feelings should be avoided. Now is the time to exterminate that monster called party spirit. 
By selecting characters most conspicuous for their probity, virtue, capacity and firmness, 
without any regard to party, you will go tar to, if not entirely, eradicate those feelings which 
on former occasions threw so many obstacles in the way of government, and perhaps have tin- 
pleasure and honor of uniting a people heretofore politically divided. The Chiei Magistrate 
of a great and powerful nation should never indulge in party feelings. I lis conduct should 
be liberal and disinterested, always bearing in mind that he acts for the whole, and not a part 
ot the community. 

lie represented Somerset count)' in the House of Assembly in 1826, 1827, and 1829. 
The majority ol fackson men in the Legislature of 1829 was very large, ami it was theiefore 
to be expected that they would choose a < iovernor from their own party. General Wall, who 
was first selected, having resisted the imp >rtunities ol his friends and persistently refused to 
accept the office, Mr. Vroom was induced very reluctantly to take the place. The Governor 
being at this time Chancellor and Ordinary, the held for selection was small ; the only other 
pei-son named for the position on this occasion, was William N. letters, who had very slender 
claims to such a trust. Mr. \ room was acknowledged, even by those opposed to him politi- 
cally, to be a worthy successor to Isaac II. Williamson. lie was re-elected in 1830 and [831, 
but the next year the friends ol Mr. Southard carried the State, and he was displaced; but 
was again elected in 1833, 1834, and 1835. In 1836 his health having become impaired, he 

declined to ac vept the olllce again. 

Governor V room's services as Chancellor for six years were of great importance to that 
Court and of great value to the State. It was his well-considered opinions which were the 
first that were reported by that Court, and which by their publication disclosed to the public 
eye the nature and the special jurisdiction of our separate Court of Equity. His opinions 
were laboriously and carefully prepared, and they have done much to settle the principles and 
formulate the practice ot this High Court. Upon retiring from office he resumed his practise 
at Somerville, and his services were in constant demand at the Count)- Circuits and in the 
State Courts. 

In 1837 President Van Buren appointed him one of the three Commissioners selected 
to adjust claims to reserves of land, under the treaty made with the Choctaw Indians ; this 
appointment he accepted, and was absent in Mississippi several months. 

In 1838 he was elected a member of Congress by a fair majority of votes, although, in 
consequence ot irregularities in some of the returns, he failed to receive the Governor's 






OF BIOGRAPHY. 105 

commission. This election was the occasion of a protracted warfare between the two parties, 
known as the " Broad Seal War." That he was fairly elected by a clear majority of votes, was 
shown after a protracted and vexatious examination of witnesses, and in the end was not 
disputed. But the great controversy was, whether his vote and the votes of his colleagues 
should be received in the election of a Speaker, parties being so nearly divided that it depended 
upon this decision which should prevail in organizing the House. It appearing, by undisputed 
documents produced to Congress, that the Governor's commission had been awarded to persons 
who in point of fact did not receive a plurality of the votes cast, it was decided, and I think 
very properly, that those thus shown to be elected should be placed on the roll and be entitled 
to vote. The testimony of the "broad seal" of the State, was at best only prima facie 
evidence ; and being shown to have been affixed upon evidence that it was imperfect, was 
rightly set aside, as soon as it was proved by authentic returns to be erroneous. The decision 
of the Governor and his council as the law then stood was, I think, right ; but that Congress 
had a right to look behind his commission was equally clear ; and that they were entirely 
justifiable in doing this, under the circumstances, before they allowed the House to be organ- 
ized, is I think equally plain. 

Soon after his service in Congress he removed to Trenton. Having lost his first wife, he 
about this time married a daughter of General Wall. In 1844 he was elected a delegate to 
the Constitutional Convention from his native county, although not a resident there. He was 
Chairman of the Committee on the Legislative Department, and took an active part in all the 
discussions and proceedings of the convention. His strong conservative propensities induced 
him to resist and to aid in defeating some changes in the Constitution, especially in regard to 
the judiciary. 

In 1846 he acted with Henry W. Green, Stacy G. Potts, and William L. Dayton in a 
thorough revision of the statutes of the State, to adapt these to the new Constitution, and to 
consolidate the numerous supplements. This work was well performed, and produced an 
excellent body of laws, without disturbing the foundations so well laid by Governor Paterson. 
Upon the expiration of the term for which Chief Justice Green had been appointed, Governor 
Fort nominated Mr. Vroom as his successor, and the appointment was forthwith confirmed by 
the Senate. He peremptorily declined accepting the office. Indeed it was always understood 
that this result was anticipated, and that the Governor and some others of the Democratic- 
party were quite willing to have a fair excuse for reappointing the Chief Justice, who had 
given great satisfaction as the head of the Supreme Court, and the result was. th.it. alter the 
nomination of Alexander Wurtz, who was also declined, Green was reinstated. Mr. \ room 
was always .1 steadfast adherent of the Democratic party. In [852 he was a presidential 
elector and cast his vote for Mr. Pierce. 

In 1853 Mr. Vroom was offered the mission to Prussia, and accepting the appointment he 
went to Berlin in the fall of that year and remained until 1857, when he was recalled at his 



io6 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

own request, and resumed his profession as an advocate, which he ever afterward continued, 
confining his business mainly to arguments in the higher courts. His services as minister 
gave full satisfaction to the government he represented, and to that of Prussia. 

He was one of the candidates on the electoral ticket adopted in i860 by the friends of 
Breckinridge ami Lane ; but in the confusion produced by the Southern Democrats, in furth 
erance of their disunion purposes, he was defeated — a result he probably did not regret, 
because while resolutely opposed to the measures of the Northern abolitionists, so certain to 
end in producing a civil war, he was equally opposed to the secession doctrines of the slave- 
holders. The spirit of his inborn patriotism impelled him to accept and serve as one of the nine 
commissioners from New Jersey to the Peace Convention, represented by twenty States, in 
the city of Washington, to avert, if possible, the terrible civil war then ready to break upon 
the country. He was conceded to be the Nestor of that distinguished commission, and though 
their efforts proved fruitless, the able and patriotic services of Governor Yroom in that con- 
nection were worthy of his high Christian statesmanship. His political convictions, as also 
all his other convictions, were very strong; they settled deep in his honest nature, and of 
course his prejudices were strong. But how beautifully the nobility of his soul asserted itself, 
when, in 1S63, before that large, inflamed and misinstructed assemblage of men, at Somer- 
ville, who had conceived the military draft to be an act of despotism to be resisted by arms, 
he appeared and uncovered his hoary head, and fixed those dark, penetrating eyes of his upon 
the surging multitude, and with uplifted hand said, "Peace, be still; the law is valid till the 
courts pronounce it invalid. However obnoxious the enforcement of the draft may be, its 
forcible resistance will involve a greater wrong. Wait upon the courts." These brave words 
from this revered oracle of the Somerset Democracy dispelled the spirit of riot and ruin. 
His speech was eloquent, and was at considerable length published throughout the country 
with happy effect. ' 

Mr. Yroom labored earnestly in support of General McClellan for the presidency at the 
election of 1S64, anil contributed greatly to his success in New Jersey. In 1868 he was 
chosen one of the presidential electors, and aided in casting the vote of the State for Horatio 
Seymour. 

Governor Yroom was a model lawyer, both as counselor and as advocate before the court 
and before the jury. Among his contemporaries in his best days were George Wood, the 
Frelinghuysens, Southard, Dayton, H. W. Green, all eloquent and strong, but each having 
special excellence. Governor Yroom combined in large, if not full measure, the special 
excellence of each. He was logical and learned, enthusiastic and pathetic, calm and persuasive. 
He may not have been so terse and direct as some, nor so vehement and lofty as others, but 
he was polished, thorough and exhaustive. When he had gone over a case there was nothing 
left to be presented. Nor was he weak enough to gauge the value of his services by the 
moderate grade of his fees, 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 



107 



ilis religious life was full-orbed. From youth to old age he was true to his convictions 
and his vows. He gave his benefactions and benedictions to the cause of temperance, of 
African colonization, of the Bible, of Sunday-Schools, of his Dutch church, in which he was a 
ruling elder, and his Dutch college, of which he was a trustee. 

Very slowly and gently did his strength depart. After having been at the bar sixty-one 
years, he died at peace with God and with the world, November 18, 1 S74, at the age of eighty- 
three years, and was buried in his native soil, on the banks of the Raritan. — Elmer s Rem. of 
N. J. and History of Mercer Co. 




,o8 ENCYCLOPEDIA 



y^VARK, TRENOR WILLIAM, of Bennington, Vermont. Horn in Woodford. 

|l J Vermont, December 8, 1823. Luther Park, father of Trenor W., was born 

% 1 March 4. 1789, married Cynthia Pratt, and died July 10, 1X71. William Park, 

grandfather of Trenor \V., who died in 1S40, aged about ninety years, was a 

gallant soldier and a commissioned officer in the Revolutionary War. 

When two or three years old Trenor W. Park removed with his parents to Bennington. 
There his meagre educational advantages were utilized in such irregular manner as the 
poverty of the family would allow. Pluck, persistence, and industry, however, enabled 
him to surmount all obstructions. From 1830 to 1836 he was known as a bright, precocious, 
keen-witted boy, who peddled molasses candy to supply the necessities of the household. 
1 le also performed such acts of service as he was capable of doing. Among these he carried 
letters to and from the post-office at Pennington, which was then located in what is now called 
Bennington Centre. This penny-postal establishment between the present village of 
Bennington ami that of Revolutionary fame was among the earliest harbingers of cheap 
postal service. 

When fifteen years of age, Trenor W. Park had prospered so much as to be the 
proprietor of a small candy store on North street. But his aspirations were to much higher 
ends than any associated with so humble a branch of commerce. He resolved to become a 
lawyer. Entering at sixteen the law-office of A. P. Lyman (a man of extraordinary native 
talent, who died in 1883), he there studied for admission to the bar, and with such success 
that he was received into the legal fraternity soon after the attainment of his majority. 

Beginning practise in the village of Bennington, he continued to prosecute it with great 
success until the spring of i8-2. He was also interested in the lumber trade of that section 
of the State, and contributed largely to its subsequent development. In controversy or 
argument his talents were strikingly apparent. In the village Lyceum he was one of the 
most conspicuous figures, and judging from his success in later life, was doubtless one of its 
most able and brilliant debaters. 

The appointment of Hon. Hiland Hall by President Fillmore in 1X51 to the chairmanship 
of the United States Land Commission in California brought an entire change into the plans 
of Mr. Park, who was the son-in-law of Mr. Hall. The commission was constituted to settle 
Mexican land-titles in the new acquisition to the territorial domain of the country. In the 
spring of 1852 Mr. Park and his family migrated to the Pacific coast. Arrived in San 
Francisco, he commenced the practise of law, and displayed so much ability in the successful 
management of his first case (in which he was pitted against General James A. Macdougall, 
subsequently United States Senator, anil who then ami ever after proclaimed him the most 
skillful jury lawyer on the Pacific coast) that he attracted the attention of the law-firm of 



OF BlOGkAPHV. io 9 

Halleck, Peachy & Billings. General Halleck afterward became one of Mr. Lincoln's chief 
advisers. He and his partners invited Mr. Park to join their firm. This he did. Halleck, 
Peachy, Billings .S: Park became the leading law-firm in California, did a lucrative business, 
and erected Montgomery Block, the finest structure at the time on the Pacific coast. 

Mr. Park's professional practise at San Francisco was not unattended by personal danger. 
Pistols were favorite arguments with disputants. But he scoffed at pistols, and relied on 
principles and precedents. He was the counsel of Alvin Adams, of Boston, president of the 
Adams Express Company, throughout the long and intricate litigation in which that company 
was involved in California and Oregon. In the historic reform movement of 1855, ne aided 
fames King, of William, in establishing the San Francisco Bulletin. When that daring 
reformer was assassinated in the street for sternly upholding law and order, the memorable 
"Vigilance Committee" sprang at once into being, and assumed the local government. 
Mr. Park was its attorney. Five of the more prominent ruffians were hung, the worst of 
their companions were deported to Australia, and San Francisco, freed from their presence, 
fell into the condition of one of the most tranquil and law-abiding cities on the continent. 

In 1858 Mr. Park visited Vermont. He was then the possessor of what was justly 
regarded as a fortune. But this was unexpectedly diminished in his absence by a commercial 
panic at San Francisco. Real estate greatly depreciated in value. Yet although his available 
resources were suddenly circumscribed, the ability and zeal to make the most of opportunities 
remained intact. Not only was he a brilliant and successful lawyer, but he was no less 
distinguished for judgment and skill in real estate operations. Politics attracted his energies. 
He failed of election as United States Senator from California by a few votes only. Next he 
became associated with Colonel John C. Fremont in the control of the celebrated Mariposa 
Mine, and administered the affairs of the Mariposa Estate. Prosperous himself in all his 
undertakings, he also made the fortunes of those who were connected with him in business. 
Mr. Park, as might have been expected from the facts of his Vermont blood and training, was 
an ardent lover of his country, and could not brook the idea of its disruption and probable 
destruction. A citizen of San Francisco when the cannonade of Fort Sumter announced the 
beginning of the long-expected strife, he wrote the following letter, which, with its enclosure, 
reveals his genuine patriotism : — 

Hon. Erastus Fairbanks, 

Governor of Vermont : — 

I have to thank the Pony Express for the pleasing intelligence that my native State has 
by unanimous vote of the Legislature appropriated men and money to aid the Administration 
in the protection of the Constitution against the foes of the country. 

I know the Green Mountain boys, like their ancestors in the Revolution, will be found 
facing the enemy. Although nearly 6,000 miles removed from Vermont, I look with great 



no ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

interest to anything that relates to her honor, and always find her right. I love Vermont and 

her people, and take pride in being counted among her sons. 

Enclosed you will find a check for $1,000, which the State of Vermont will please accept 

as my contribution toward defraying the expenses of fitting ovit her sons for battle, or 

supporting the families of those who may fall in the defense of the flag of our Union. 

With full confidence in the success of the right, 

I am very truly yours, 

T. W. Park. 

In 1864 Mr. Park retired from business and returned to Vermont. Inaction was too 
wearisome for one of his temperament, and he soon emerged into active life, and established 
the First National Bank of North Bennington, built a fine residence, and connected himself 
with various business enterprises. He also embarked in State politics, was elected to the 
Legislature, and wielded great power in that body. One of the original corporators of the 
Central Vermont Railroad Company at the reorganization of the Vermont Central under that 
title, he furnished much of the capital required on that occasion. Not all his railroad enter- 
prises were as remunerative as he had expected. The Lebanon Springs Railroad was one of 
these. Commencing its construction in 1868, he hoped thereby to make Bennington an 
important railroad town, and to place it on a through-route from New York to Montreal, but 
almost ruined his finances and also impaired his health in the undertaking. He wished to 
supply the great want of transportation experienced by Southern Vermont, but did not meet 
with fitting co-operation. Prior to this he had purchased the Western Vermont Railroad. 
Works showed the sincerity which his opponents have since so freely and fully admitted. 

In 1872 Mr. Park was united with General Baxter in the ownership of the celebrated 
Emma Mine, and while he managed it the payment of dividends was regular. Positive, 
energetic and accustomed to operate on a large scale, he did not escape criticism and 
litigation. In the legal controversy which sprang out of the Emma Mine he was the victor. 
His sagacity and legal acumen were marvellous. After a jury-trial of five months he was 
fully vindicated. Neither trials nor claims were impending at the time of his decease, nor did 
any stain rest upon his character. 

His administration of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, of which he was for years a 
director, was characterized by his wonted shrewdness and force. He purchased a controlling 
interest in the Panama Railroad, and was elected its president in 1874, and so continued until 
his decease. As manager, in connection with General J. G. McCullough, he, through favor of 
circumstances, saw the value of its stock rise from below par to three hundred cents on the 
dollar : at the latter rate it was sold to the De Lesseps Canal Company. His was the 
dominant mind in the old Panama corporation, and to him the felicitous close of its affairs 
was mainly due. The transfer of its property and the accompanying negotiations were only 
completed a few months before he sailed for Panama on the trip in which he- died. 



OF BIOGRAPHY. m 

Trenor W. Park was warmly and dec-ply attached to the locality in which the years of his 
youth and early manhood had been passed. He was, with E. J. Phelps of Burlington, 
Vermont, ex-Governor Prescott of New Hampshire and ex-Governor Rice of Massachusetts, 
one of the committee on the design of the Bennington Battle Monument, which is intended to 
perpetuate the memory and preserve the spirit of Revolutionary patriotism. He was also a 
liberal giver. When one of the trustees of the University of Vermont, he conceived the idea 
of donating the Gallery of Art which now bears his name. Benefactions whose good was 
apparent in the improved health of hundreds of poor New Vorkers (beneficiaries of the 
Tribune Fresh Air Fund) he delighted in. To these he gave some months of delightful rural 
experience at Bennington. The Bennington Free Library is also a splendid monument of his 
munificence. 

His last and largest contemplated gift was that for the ample endowment of a Home 
at Bennington, "The Park Home," for destitute children and women. The Hunt property, 
north of the village, was purchased, the Home incorporated by Act of the Legislature of 1882, 
and when, the news reached him he was busy devising the best method to accomplish his 
purpose. After his death the property was presented by his heirs to the State of Vermont to 
be used as a Soldiers' Home, a most fitting presentation. Paralysis seized him on the 13th 
of December, 1882, while a passenger on board the Pacific mail-steamer San Bias. His 
remarkable career closed suddenly. In itself it is not only an illustration of the possibilities 
of youth in this country, but also of the intrinsic value of shrewdness, energy and 
perseverance. Nurtured in poverty, he died in affluence. Reared with scanty advantages, 
he died an able and astute legist, a general of industry, a monarch of finance. Of course he 
had enemies. 

Such men necessarily make opponents. But he also made and kept hosts of warm and 
devoted friends. Short and slight of figure, head bent forward as if in deep thought, eyes 
small and restless, manner nervous and restrained, chin and mouth strong and firm, quick 
and decided in expression, a great reader and a powerful thinker — this modest and unobtrusive 
man was one whose memory neither Vermont nor the world will permit to perish. His funeral 
took place from the Collegiate Reformed Church, Fifth avenue and Forty-eighth street, New 
Vork, and was attended by many political, financial and railroad dignitaries. His remains 
repose in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York. 

Trenor W. Park was married on the :5th of December, 1846, to Laura Y., daughter of 
ex-Governor Hiland Hall. Lovely and beloved, a woman who through life showcn-d sun- 
shine on all around her; she died in June, 1875. Two daughters and one son survive their 
parents. One of the daughters is the wife of General J. G. McCullough, and the other of 
Frederick B. Jennings, a prominent young lawyer of New York city. The son, Trenor L. 
Park, is a graduate of Harvard University. < >n the 30th of May, [882, Mr. Park was married 
to Ella F., daughter of A. C. Nichols, Esq., of San Francisco, California, who now survives him. 



H3 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 



| V^VANCOAST, PROFESSOR WILLIAM II., the President of the Medico-Chirurgical 
\s^^9 College of Philadelphia, is the son of the late distinguished Dr. Joseph Pancoast, 
t A and was horn in the city where he at present resides. October 16, [835, and 

although barely passed the meridian of life, he has reached an enviable position 
in his profession. I le received his literary education at Haverford College, and graduated 
therefrom in 1853 as A. B.; later, on furnishing' original papers, receiving the degree of A. M. 
lie probably inherited from his father those traits of mind which led him to seek knowledge, 
and imbibed from him the tastes which directed his attention to medicine as his special field of 
study and occupation. He graduated from the Jefferson Medical College in 1856, ami subse 
quently supplemented his education by three years of residence at the great medical 
institutions of London, Paris and Vienna, and gained much of general information by travel 
upon the Continent and in England. Returning well equipped, so far as the best schools of 
the world could do that work, he quickly obtained a large practice and thus supplied the 
deficiency that experience alone is capable of supplying. Like his father, he turned his 
attention chiefly to anatomy and surgery, and devoted himself to them with an intelligence 
and a persistency ol purpose that soon brought him into eminence, which in turn urged him 
to continual study of the current discoveries in these branches of science. His ability was 
generally recognized in the profession, and, in 1S62, it received a flattering attestation in his 
appointment as Demonstrator of Anatomy, ami, subsequently, that of Adjunct Professor in 
his . lima Mater. He held that position in Jefferson Medical College for twelve years, 
acquitting himself so creditably that when his father resigned the chair of Anatomy ami Clinical 
Surgery, in 1874, he was chosen by the trustees to fill the vacancy, and that advanced station 
he occupied until the spring of 1886, proving himself fully adequate to the duties of the 
professorship, both in the thoroughness of his knowledge and his faculty for imparting it to 
the students who came before him — a gift which does not always accompany the possession of 
information. The esteem and affection in which he was held by the pupils were expressed upon 
his resignation by their many kindly words individually spoken, and by a general request that he 
should sit for a portrait, which they afterwards presented to the trustees of the college. 
Professor Pancoast, during his connection with |efferson Medical College, as well as before, 
was an exceedingly busy man. 

Not only were his labors at that institution quite onerous, but he held various positions 
of other nature — each placing upon him a more or less heavy additional load — ami performed 
various duties pertaining to his profession. lb- was Visiting Surgeon to the Philadelphia 
Hospital for eighteen years, the managers ol which subsequently appointed him, on his resig- 
nation in 1885, Emeritus Surgeon of the institution, this being the first time that rank was 
established in this old and celebrated hospital. He was also Senior Surgeon, second in 




¥*■"■ 




fy / i - f - r /? , 7 /j //■ ///. ///. y . a 



^ 



OF BIOGRAPHY. i 1 3 

command, of the Sixth and Master Streets I fnited States Military I lospital ; and during the war 
did service at the front on several occasions, for which he was elected a member of the Loyal 
Legion. He was in the first Hull Run battle, in the Chickahominy, and in command of the 

fine hospital steamer, the Spaulding, which, well equipped with medical assistants and stores, 
he took to White House landing. He was likewise in the second Hull Run battle, where he 
also represented the Governor of Pennsylvania, being placed in charge of all the supplies 
sent by that State. He was offered the commission of Brigade Surgeon to the UnionLeague 
Brigade, but was obliged to decline it on account of his duties as Demonstrator of Anatomy 
and Assistant to the Chair of Anatomy in Jefferson Medical College. Since 1859 he has been 
Surgeon and Consulting Surgeon of the Charity Hospital, and one of its trustees. He also 
filled (and continues still to hold main- of) the following-mentioned posts: he was President 
of the Philadelphia County Medical Society, a First Yice-Presiclent of the Pennsylvania 
State Medical Society, a First Vice-President of the American Medical Association, a member 
of the International Congress held in Philadelphia in 1876, a member of the American Asso- 
ciation of Medical Editors, and permanent member of these and other medical and scientific 
societies. In the recent effort to maintain the integrity and success of the Ninth International 
Medical Congress, he took a prominent and active part, and, during the important conven- 
tion of the body held at Washington in September, 1887, he was a member of the executive 
committee of the Congress, and President of the Section'on Anatomy, and a delegate from 
this Ninth International Congress to the National Medical Societies of Europe, to advance 
its interests. In 1884 he settled a question long mooted among medical men of America and 
Europe, by procuring, aided by his colleagues, the bodies of the Siamese twins, and demon- 
strating beyond a doubt that the band which united them could not have been separated 
without destroying their lives. 

He carried on, too, during the whole period of his professorship, a large private Practice, 
and it is not strange that although a very healthy, strong man, upon resigning his chair in the 
Faculty of Jefferson College, he should have desired that rest and recreation which only a 
change of scene and complete cessation of labor can give. He consequently went abroad 
with an idea of making extended travels in Europe and the far East — a purpose which he did 
not succeed in carrying out. Professor Pancoast had been abroad tor only a brief season 
when he received an urgent and flattering invitation to return home, and one which he could 
not well ignore even had he cared to. The Trustees and Faculty of the Medico-Chirurgical 
College were anxious to develop that institution for the purpose of affording a higher medical 
education, and they sought his services to that md. It was far more through his public spirit, 
his love of his native city and his profession that he was led to accede to their call tor aid, than 
through any desire for personal benefit, and, indeed, there appeared little or no promise of the 
latter. He came reluctantly, but, having once espoused the cause, labored for its interests 
most zealously. "Other talented gentlemen," says a Philadelphia newspaper, "also allied 

11 



/ V( M LOPJEDIA 



i In m ielves with the Medi< o Chirurgical College, and the distinguished Fa< ulty, thus reinforced, 
was eminently qualified t<> bring aboul the remarkable growth and prosperitj which t li < ■ college 
1 1. 1 ihown during the pa il two or three years. As a medical school this institution now rivals 
i In besl in i In i countrj Its well managed hospital, which 'Iocs an active and extensive work 
in Philadelphia, affords ex< ellenl opportunities in its daily clinics, which are conducted l>\ able 
professors ol ripe experience, The recenl union ol the Dental College with the Medico- 
Chirurgical College, and the further coalition with the Polytechnic College of Pennsylvania, 
have Keen important epochs in the medical history ol Philadelphia." It may he remarked 
thai in the iuccess ol these institutions, thus glowingly spoken ol by the press. Professor 
Pancoasl has had a leading influence. He is one bf the trustees of the Polytechnic and an 
enthusiastic worker in the united interests ol all. ' )n Professor Pancoast's identification with 
the Medii o Chirurgii al < ollege he was elected to the chair ol ( ri neral I test riptive and Surgical 
Anatomy and Clinical Surgery. In 1887 '"' received the highesl honor in the gift ol the 
trustees, being elected President ol the college, 

When the International Medical Congress held its session in Washington, I). C, during 
September, 1887, he had the pleasure ol conferring one <>i the degrees ol the college, that of 
F. M C. ( (Fellow ol the Medico-Chirurgical College) upon eighteen eminent physicians 
from England, Scotland, Prance, Germany, Russia, Italy, Egypt and Ron mania. The prosperity 
attending the reorganization ol the college has already compelled the erection of extensive 
new buildings, which will give its Faculty greater facilities ol instruction than before, and 
afford accommodations for an increased attendance ol students. The college trustees con 
■• 1 at 11 1, ile 1 he in selves u | ion having sec 1 1 red i lie ser\ ices ol so disting uished a physician, << I uca tor 
ami manager as Professor Pancoast, and he in turn is proud ol his connection with the growing 
in liiution. which is an honor t<> Philadelphia, and must, in th<' nature ol things, become more 
and more so year bj year. Professor Pancoast is a member ol several city, state and national 
societies, .in*\ ol learned I todies in London and Paris, I le is also I 'resident ol the International 
Red < toss Society, ol Philadelphia, which, under his management and that <>l the Executive 
Committee, has performed valuable services, lending lustre to the fair lame ol Philadelphia 
and forwarding the interests ol humanity. His contributions to medical literature consist ol 
published addresses, papers and clinical lectures furnished to the different medical journals — 
the Medical and Surgical Reporter, Medical Times, Photographu Review of Med nine and 
Surgery, th< Medical Register, etc. Three ol these papers have had a wide circulation in this 
countrj and Europe, viz.: On the Surgical Anatomy ol the Hand Connecting the Siamese 
I w iiis ; on the Anatomy ol the Union ol the Carolina Twins, and a New Method ol Treating 
I racture ol the Neck ol the Thigh Bone. I le is one ol the proprietors and the associate 
editor ol the Medical Register. He has also devised some valuable instruments, and some 

new methods in surgery. Mis unthrotome, therapeutic knife, splint chair for treatment of 

fracture ol the neck ol the thigh hone, and black, iron-dyed silk ligature are accepted and well 






OF BIOGRAPHY, 



US 



known. Professor Pancoasi has scarcely passed life's meridian, and possessing vigor oi mind 
and body, there is promise dial he may yet do mm I) more for his profession and his generation, 
— Con temporal y Biography of Penna. 




n6 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 



ar 



HELPLEY, EDWARD \\'., Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, 
was born at Morristown in 1S1S, and descended from the very best ancestry ever 
found in New [ersey. His father was William A. Whelpley, a practising physician 
of great talent and high character, and his mother was a daughter of Gen. John 
Dodd, of Bloomfield, in Essex county, New fersey. The Doild family has given some most 
remarkable men to New fersey, in all the ranks of cultured, educated society, as lawyers, as 
professors in colleges, as clergymen, as scientists, and in business. It is noted for one charac- 
teristic, which seems to have been inherent in all its members, a taste and a talent for 
mathematics. 

Young Whelpley was prepared for college at the schools in his native place, which were 
of a very high order. He entered Nassau Hall, at Princeton, very early in life, and graduated 
at the unprecedently youthful age of sixteen. His friends then thought him too young to 
begin study for any profession, and he taught school for about two years. He then entered 
the office of his uncle, Amzi Dodd, one of the most prominent lawyers in Newark. This 
relative died before his studentship expired, and he finished his studies with Amzi Armstrong, 
one ol the acutest-minded men who ever practised at the bar in New Jersey. He was 
licensed as an attorney in 1839, and as a counsellor in 1842. He first opened an office in 
Newark, where he remained only a year or two. The Hon. |acob W. Miller, ot Morristown, 
in 1841, was elected to the Senate of the United States, and needed some one to take charge 
ol his large; practice, and he ottered Mr. Whelpley a partnership. The offer was accepted, 
and the young attorney at once removed to Morristow n, where almost with a bound he reached 
in an incredibly short time a very high place at the bar. There were then to be found in 
Morris county some of the brightest legal minds in the State. It would have been very diffi- 
cult tor a young man to have met such astute-minded men and have held his own against 
them had he not been well equipped, both by native talent and by study ; but young Whelpley 
was equal to the exigencies ot his position, and was able to cope successfully with his older 
and more experienced brethren. 

It was not long before his fellow-citizens, appreciating his worth and fully understanding 
what an addition he would make to the law-making power of the State, called him from his 
office anil from his practice to the duties of a legislator. 1 lehad given them a signal evidence 
of his ability in the direction of political affairs. lb- was a politician, but in the best signifi- 
cation of that word, and took a deep interest in the politics ol the Republic, and kept himself 
informed on all of the stirring questions of the day. 

A large public meeting ol the adherents of the political party to which he was opposed, 
was attended by him. The principal speaker was a gentleman older than Mi". Whelpley. and 
a man of large mental capacity, who afterward rose to the highest judicial position in New 







(3 /i u //"/u^itf 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 117 

Jersey. He was rather profuse in his challenges for contradiction to his statements, and Mr. 
Whelpley took advantage of the speaker's defiances and propounded several questions to 
him. After a few interruptions ot this kind, the orator intimated that his questioner should 
have an opportunity, after he had finished, to reply. At the close of his speech he gracefully 
turned to Mr. Whelpley and said: "Now, sir, it you wish, you can be heard." The circum- 
stances and the occasion impelled a reply. With paled cheeks and compressed lips, but with 
blazing eyes, he ascended the platform, llis opponent was too much of a gentleman to have 
permitted any interruption, or there might have been trouble. Fortunately for Mr. Whelpley 
there were some citizens present of his own way of political thinking who sustained him by 
voice and cheers. At first they were dismayed, somewhat fearful that the young man could 
not successfully meet the arguments of his shrewd and talented antagonist. But he was not 
long on the platform before both friend and foe were convinced that he was master of his 
subject. The result was that his effort was of such a character that the meeting dispersed 
overwhelmed by the arguments of the man thus unexpectedly thrust upon it, and young 
Whelpley became the acknowledged leader of his own party in the county. He was eagerly 
sought for as a speaker at all important meetings of the party to which he was attached, and so 
soon as the proper opportunity came was nominated and elected in 1848 a member of the 
Assembly from Morris county. He served twice in this responsible position, during his 
second term being elected Speaker. He never again became a candidate for political honors, 
but applied himself diligently and resolutely to his profession, in which he became eminent 
and very successful. 

In 1858 Martin Ryerson resigned his office of Associate Justice, and the Governor 
selected Mr. Whelpley to fill the vacancy. This selection was acknowledged by all to be 
exceedingly proper, and one of the best that could have been made. He held the position 
until 1 861, when Henry W. Green, then Chief Justice, was made Chancellor, and Judge 
Whelpley was selected as the head of the Court to succeed Chancellor Green. Very soon after 
he was raised to this responsible post he sickened with that terrible malady, Bright's disease, 
from which he never recovered. He, however, continued to discharge the duties of the high 
office to which he was so recently elected, until about two months before his death. In the 
month of February, 1864, in the prime of his manhood, in his forty-sixth year, he died, after 
the intensest suffering, calmly and bravely meeting his md, which for months he knew was 
approaching. 

After this brief and imperfect sketch of this illustrious man, it is well to pause a moment 
and think of his shining virtues, his great intellect, his many-sided character, and his noble 
nature. View him from any standpoint, as a man, as a citizen, as a jurist, as a lawyer, and he 
was great. But in these sketches he is to be spoken of as a lawyer and as a judge. 

lie was in every respect a great lawyer, ami possessed nearly, il not quite, all of the 
characteristics of a consummate jurist. He was a clear thinker, ol a cool, dispassionate 



i iS ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

judgment, with a power of analysis which enabled him to grasp all the points in any case 
submitted, and give them their due proportions and their appropriate relations. He had an 
acute and intuitive perception ol the principles ol legal science which never failed him, and a 
perfect control of himself which kept him entirely tree from any prejudice, and forced ever) 
faculty of his nature to submit to intellectual leadership. His habit of close thought and 
logical reasoning gave him a great mental grasp, which enabled him to gather up all the legal 
principles involved in cases before him and use those principles with unerring effect. His 
arguments were compact, lucid, ami convincing. He had strengthened all these mental gifts 
by severe study ami intellectual training, and had not disdained the lighter studies found 
outside of his chosen pursuit. 

In addressing juries he seized every salient fact in the evidence, marshaled all the 
testimony, so that it was presented, connected in all its parts, to the mental vision of jurors 
with such irresistible vigor that they were forced to admit its power. He was not a great 
orator, with grace of delivery, with voice and gesture ; but his diction was admirable, his 
words were well-chosen, always appropriate, his style always forcible ; he was never redundant, 
rarely impassioned, but able, if he chose, to rise to great heights of eloquence. He met the 
requirements of the intellect and of the judgment, ami never stormed the heart with appeals 
for sympathy. I le was always listened to by jurors ; they could not help listening — he 
commanded their attention, even of the dullest of them. But it was before the bench that he 
shone the brightest, and it was in that arena that he won his highest renown. The judges 
ever heard him with the profoundest respect, and they never failed to award him their 
admiration, even if they did not agree with him. 

In two cases before the Court of Errors, the highest appellate court in the State, he 
accomplished what no other lawyer, before his time or since, has ever been able to do. In 
both cases he carried his appeals by inducing the lay members to vote with him and overrule 
the law judges. One of these cases was so interesting and peculiar that it deserves a passing 
notice;. A mortgagee found it necessary to use his mortgagor as a witness in a cause in court. 
I nder the old common law then in force, the mortgagor could not be used as such witness if 
he were interested pecuniarily in the event of the suit ; so a release of the tidiest character was 
executed under seal, and delivered to the mortgagor. The bond and mortgage were assigned, 
and a foreclosure begun in the Court of Chancery. The mortgagor pleaded the release, and 
the Chancellor held that the assignees of the mortgagee could not go behind that instrument ; 
that it was a perfect answer to the foreclosure, and that the bill must be dismissed. The 
complainant appealed, and on the decision five of the lay judges voted to reverse the 
Chancellor, overruling the law judges, and the decree dismissing the bill was reversed. 

He had some characteristics as a practising lawyer which deserve notice. He was always 
fair in his treatment of his brethren at the bar. No technicalities were ever resorted to by 
him, to the personal disadvantage of other attorneys ; he never lost sight of the rights of his 






OF BIOGRAPHY. llg 

clients, nor of his duty to them ; but he scorned to secure those rights by doing an injustice. I Ie 
never favored a litigious suitor, he honored his profession too highly, loved it too well to make 
it, or its appliances, subservient to the malice or to the freaks of those who sought his 
services. In the conduct of causes he did his whole duty to his clients, but never by any 
unfair means. If he could only succeed by a resort to measures which had even the semblance 
of unfairness, he would rather suffer defeat than be successful. Asa counsellor, he was wise, 
prudent, and honest. He never urged a client to litigate doubtful claims. 

He was ambitious lor judicial honors, and when they came to him they found him ready 
to face the responsibilities of the position, because he knew what was in him and appreciated 
his own capabilities and he knew that he was fully prepared. He was equipped by study, by 
severe thought, by constant discipline, and by a training of mind and heart which fitted him 
for the place. He was a born judge, and by his mental constitution and his moral attributes 
was fitted for the place ; but he ever made his heart subservient to his mind. His judgments 
were based upon results reached through his intellectual efforts, and yet no man had a hio-her 
appreciation or a keener intuition of the demands of true morality, and of that high-toned 
moral sense which should ever characterize the judge in all his decisions. Above all other 
considerations this question most influenced him in all his judicial acts: Is it right? 

His personal appearance was imposing ; he was full six feet in height, with clear-cut 
features, a lull, dark eye, dignified in manners, but always approachable to all. While so 
intense a student of profound legal principles, he was an eager reader of general literature, 
and kept himselt fully abreast with all the topics interesting to such a mind as he possessed. 
His memory, which had an iron grasp, enabled him to retain all that he studied worth 
remembering. 

When death came and struck down this shining mark, the citizens of the State, of all 
classes, were moved with one common sorrow ; the great men of New Jersey came in crowds 
to his funeral, and surrounded his bier with grief-stricken hearts. In token of their respect 
the Courts adjourned their sessions, after the unanimous passage of resolutions embodying 
the highest encomiums of the deceased judge ; the Legislature in both of its branches, attested 
by resolutions their appreciation of his worth, and appointed special committees to attend his 
funeral. By one common consent it was acknowledged that a great man had fallen. — The 
Green Bag. 



i2o ENCYCLOPAEDIA 



/"""XflMMi >\S, JOSEPH EDWARD, LL. D., President of the Fourth National Bank, 
^^^^7 was born at Troy, New York, September 9, 1841. On the paternal side he is of 
^<~S Dutch descent. His greatgrandfather, Christian Simmons, a native of Holland, 
came to America early in the last century and settled in Duchess count)'. New York. 
Christian Simmons had four sons and they all settled in Renssalaer county, New York, 
taking up wilderness land under what was called "the Van Renssalaer Grant." They wen 
tanners by occupation, and were distinguished for their character, intelligence and thrift. 

Joseph Ferris Simmons, father of Joseph Edward, was a son of Christian Simmons, one 
of the brothers mentioned above; he was born in the old town of Sandlake (in the portion 
now attached to Poestenkill), in 1S17. At sixteen years of age he abandoned farming and 
removed to Troy, where he entered upon a mercantile career which was marked by industry 
and ability, and crowned with success and fortune. He was a director of the State Bank of 
Troy, from its organization until his death, a period of twenty-five years, and discharged this 
as well as all other official trusts (which were numerous) with scrupulous fidelity, and with the 
highest honor to himself ; he died June 6, 1879. 

The mother of J. Edward Simmons, nee Mary Sophia Gleason, was a native of Towns- 
hend, New Hampshire, a lady of rare virtue and intelligence. She was the eldest child ol 
Captain Samuel Gleason, also a native of Townshend, who, during the later period of his life, 
resided in Shaftsbury. Vermont, lie married a Miss Ober, a lady of French descent, who 
was the mother of Mary Sophia Gleason, who married Joseph F. Simmons in 1839. The 
issue of this union was Charles E. Simmons, M. D., J. Edward Simmons, LL. D., and Emma 
Kate Simmons, now Mrs. Charles R. Flint, all of New York city. Her father was a veteran 
of the war of 1812-15, ami her grandfather, Samuel Gleason, also a resident of New Hampshire, 
was a soldier of the Revolution. Such is the parentage and ancestry of J. Edward Simmons. 

Reared in a comfortable home amid refined and cultured surroundings, his early years 
were passed in the city of his birth. His education began at the old Troy Academy, and was 
continued at a boarding school at Sandlake, where he was prepared for college by Win. 1 1. 
Schram. In [858 he entered Williams College, then under the Presidency of Mark Hopkins, 
and graduated in 1S62. 

After finishing his collegiate course he began the stud)- of law at the Albany Law School. 
1 lr received the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1863 and was admitted to the bar at Albany, 
at the May term of the Supreme Court, in the same year. He practiced his profession in 
Troy until 1867, when he removed to New York city and engaged in the banking and broker- 
age business. In 1S6S he became a partner of Benj. L. DeForest, and two years later was 
admitted to partnership in the old banking-house of Grant & Co. Owing to impaired health 
he retired from that house at the close of 1872. 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 121 

The winter of 1873 ' le spent in Florida seeking recuperation, but in 1874 he again 
engaged in business in Wall street, where he steadilj continued, in one way or another, until 
[884, when he was chosen President of the New York Stock Exchange. At the time of his 
nomination for this office by the regularly appointed nominating committee, Mr. Simmons had 
been a member of the Board for thirteen years, though he had not been an active participant 
in its affairs during the larger part of that period. 

The panic of [884 and the suspension of the house of A. S. Hatch & Co., the head of 
which, though but recently elected President of the Exchange, became disqualified for the 
office by his suspension, brought the affairs of the Exchange to such a condition that it 
was absolutely necessary to exercise a great care and discrimination in the selection of a 
President. 

Although a comparatively young man, Mr. Simmons was not unknown or inexperienced. 
He was well educated, had spent fifteen years or more in active business. I lis legal training, 
something exceptional for a member of the Exchange, was a qualification of considerable 
value in itself. 

At the election held on June 2, 1884, Mr. Simmons received six hundred and seven of 
the seven hundred and thirty-two votes cast. The membership of the Exchange- was at that 
date one thousand and ninety-nine, and the vote polled was the largest on record up to that 
time, Mr. Simmons receiving more than was ever received by any previous candidate for 
President in a contested election. Mr. Simmons assumed his duties as President on the day 
following his election. With rare tact and judgment he speedily brought order out of chaos, 
and in a very brief period demonstrated to the entire satisfaction ot even the most skeptical 
that he was the right man in the right place. His term of office proved such a brilliant 
success that he was re-elected a second term by a unanimous vote, "an honor seldom con- 
ferred," but which was bestowed "in recognition of the able manner in which he had discharged 
its onerous duties the year before, and of the high esteem in which he is held as a member of 
the Exchange." The fact that a seat in the Exchange is valued at about S-5.000 gives an 
idea of its importance. Besides, a membership includes a severe test as to personal character 
and financial integrity. To be called a second term to preside over an organization whose 
transactions are so large and conducted on such a gigantic scale, is a compliment to the 
incumbent, and is an evidence that he possesses executive ability of a high order and a busi 
ness capacity of unusual power. 

It should be mentioned that the office of President of the New York Stock Exchange 
is unsalaried, and that while it brings no emolument to its incumbent, it does bring weighty 
responsibilities and duties of a most onerous character. The position, nevertheless, is deemed 
one of exceptional dignity and honor. 

At the close of his second term President Simmons was requested to allow his name to 
be presented as candidate for a third, but declined on account of his health. 



I 22 



i:\cyclop. /■:/>/.! 



On retiring from the presidency of the Exchange Mr. Simmons took a trip to Europe, 
accompanied by his wife and three children. Upon his return home, after an absence of 
several months, he devoted his attention closely to educational matters and public affairs in gen- 
eral. His connection with the Board of Education began early in 1 88 1 . when he was appointed 
a Commissioner by Mayor Grace. In 1884 he was reappointed by Mayor Franklin Edson, 
and in 1S86 he was unanimously chosen President of the Board, succeeding the Hon. Stephen 
A. Walker, who had resigned upon being appointed United States District Attorney by 
President Cleveland. Mr. Simmons served four years as President of the Board. From 
first to last Mr. Simmons lias distinguished himself by his zealous labors on this Commission. 

In June, 1885, the University of Norwich, Vermont, conferred on him the honorary 
degree of Doctor of Laws, in recognition ol his distinguished services in the cause of 
education. 

Mr. Simmons became a member of Mt Zion Lodge, No. 311, at Troy, New York, in 
[864. Ten years later he affiliated with Kane Lodge, No. 454, in the city of New York, 
became its Master in 1S77, and again in 1S7S. In 1883 he was chosen Grand Master of the 
( rrand Lodge of the State of New York, by unanimous vote, and served in that exalted office 
one year. His rise to this dignity, after sitting only five years in the Grand Lodge, was 
unprecedented, and indicated the general appreciation of his worth and influence as a Mason, 
as well as his great personal popularity. 

Mr. Simmons is a member >A the University, the Manhattan, the Players', the Lawyers', 
and the New York Athletic Clubs, and of the St. Nicholas, and New England Societies. 

In politics he is a 1 )emocrat, and for a number of years preceding the death of the Hon. 
Samuel I. Tilden, he was a close personal friend of that distinguished statesman. On the 12th 
of April, 1866, J. Edward Simmons was married to Julia, daughter of George Greer, of New 
York city. The issue of this union was five children, three of whom survive, viz.: A son, 
Joseph Ferris Simmons, now a student in New York city, and two daughters, Julia Greer and 

Mabel. 

In January. [888, J. Edward Simmons was called to the presidency of the Fourth National 
Bank. When invited to accept this position he was unacquainted with any of the Board of 
1 )irectors, owned no stock in the corporation, neither had he ever entered the bank. He was 
called to the presidency solely on the strength of his public record. The " Fourth National " 
is one of the leading banks of the United States. It has a capital of $3,200,000. and its gross 
deposits are in the neighborhood of $30,000,000. The chief direction of this great institution 
is a weighty matter, and calls for exceptional skill in financial affairs, the constant exercise of 
great tact, and sterling integrity. When it is remembered that during his career of fully 
twenty-live years in Wall street, J. Edward Simmons never failed to meet a contract, and that, 
in financial circles, it was said that nothing was known of him save that which was to his credit, 
it is not surprising that a committee of conservative bankers should have urged him to accept 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 123 

the presidency of the great institution they represented, which had absolute need at its head 
of a man of the very highest character and purest record. 

THE FOURTH NATIONAL BANK OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. 

This bank was organized in January, 1S64. The National Banking System was at that 
time in its infancy, and it had been thought desirable by many friends of the system, notably 
by the then Secretary of the Treasury, Hon. Salmon I'. Chase, that a bank of large capital 
should be organized under such favorable auspices as would result in demonstrating the 
utility of the National Banking System, and would induce banks existing under the State 
system to take out charters under the National Banking Act. This hope was largely realized 
by the establishment of the Fourth National Bank. In its inception the movement for its 
organization was participated in by many eminent citizens of New York, and not only did their 
efforts lead to the specific success aimed at, but an institution was established, which, early 
taking high rank in financial strength and influence, stands to-day in the forefront of those 
great institutions of the metropolis, to which the mercantile and banking interests of the 
country look for support and growth. 

The first president of the bank was Hon. George Opdyke, whose term of office as Mayor 
of the city had just expired. The eminent financier, Morris Ketcham, was his successor. 
Tin; third president was Philo C. Calhoun, in whose long term of office, extending over a 
period of about fifteen years, the bank increased largely in deposits and the wide extension 
of its business throughout the different sections of the country. Many of the institutions at 
that time and previously entering into business relations with the Fourth National still 
remain upon its roll of friends and correspondents. Upon the death of Mr. Calhoun. Mr. (). 
I). Baldwin was chosen to fill the presidency, which he resigned in [anuary, iNNX ; he was 
succeeded by [. Edward Simmons. The roster of officers are: President, |. Fdward 
Simmons ; Vice-Presidents, Cornelius N. Bliss, and James G. Cannon ; Cashier, Charles H. 
Patterson ; Assistant Cashier, John A. Hiltner. 

The Board of Directors comprises men well known not only in the city ol New York, 
but throughout the country in all commercial and financial circles, and many ol them eminent 
in other walks of life. As at present constituted the Board consists ol: |. Edward Simmons, 
President; Frederick Mead, of Frederick Mead & Co., 104 Water street; Cornelius N. Bliss. 
Vice President, of Bliss, l'abyan & Co., I 17 and 119 Duane street; Charles S. Smith, Presi- 
dent of the Chamber of Commerce; John H. Inman, of Inman, Swann & Co., Cotton 
Exchange Building; Robert \V. Stuart, of J. and J. Stuart ec Co.. 33 Nassau street : Richard 
T. Wilson, of R. T. Wilson & Co., 2 Exchange court : Marcus A. Bettman, of Herman 
Bernheimer, Son & Co., 75 Leonard street; James G. Cannon, Vice-President. 

The bank first opened its doors for business in the old Government building, 29 Pine 
street, but in [866 removed to its present location on the northeast corner of Nassau and 



124 ENCYCLOPEDIA 

Pine streets. The bank building is a six story white-marble structure, upon the first floor of 
which accommodation is found for the nearly one hundred employees of the bank. The 
building is owned by the bank, and carried upon its hooks at a valuation of $6oo,ooo, though 
its actual value is believed to be much greater. 

The capital stock of the bank is $ ; v joo.OOO.OO; surplus, $1,350,000.00; net profits, 
>;;8, 030.68; average net deposits, $20,000,000.00. 

The strength of the bank in its corporate capacity may lie seen by a glance at the record 
published by the bank in <>i tuber last, of its weekly statement for three months ending 
( )c tolier iS, [N90, to the Clearing House Association, of its average loans, specie, legal tender 
notes, deposits and excess of reserve for that period. This exhibit shows an average loan of 
over $18,000,000. While at the same time an average excess of reserve over the legal limit 
ol 25 per cent, of net deposits was carried, amounting in round figures to about $500,000, 
and although the bank has a capital and surplus of nearly $5,000,000. The loans were rarely 
equal in amount during the period in question to the deposits, which amounted to about 
> 1 0,000,000 average. 

During the recent financial distress, the Fourth National Bank was one of the first to 
take prompt and decisive action for the restoration ol confidence, the significance of this 
action emanating from such source was at once perceived, and its effect upon the business 
community was felt immediately. 













Jin.tL^rhn^ 49rCO *r-?r£ J'< 



7 



ST 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 125 



OOLSEY, THEODORE DWIGHT, D. D., LL. D., ex-President of Vale College, 
New Haven. Born in New York, October 31, 1801. The first American ancestor 
of his line was George YVoolsey, who settled among the Dutch, in what is now the 
State of New York, during the early part of the seventeenth century. The Rev. 
Benjamin Woolsey, of Southold, Long Island, grandson of the original immigrant, graduated 
at Yale College in 1709, and spent the last twenty years of his life at Dossoris, now (den 
Cove, on the same island, in the enjoyment of a considerable estate, which came to him 
through his wife. His grandson, William Walton Woolsey, born at Dossoris in 1766, became 
a merchant in New York, and was long an important member of the Chamber of Commerce, 
Treasurer of the American Bible Society, and in connection with various other public institu- 
tions. He married Elizabeth, sister of President Dwight, of Yale College, who had previously 
married his sister. By her he had seven children, all of whom attained maturity and became 
heads of families. The sixth of these was Theodore Dwight Woolsey, who graduated at Yale 
College in 1820. 

Soon after his graduation young Woolsey went to Philadelphia and read law — but with 
no wish or intention to prepare himself for the practise of the legal profession — in the office 
of Charles Chauncey, Esq., a near relative of his father by marriage. The following years 
were spent at Princeton in the study of theology, to which he had devoted himself. In 
1823-25 he served as tutor in Yale College, having received appointment to that office some 
months before leaving Princeton. He then resumed the study of theology, and was licensed 
to preach in 1825. After further study at home he went to Europe, in May, 1S27, and was 
absent a little more than three years, residing, for purpose of study, in France and Germain 
for about two years, and spending the remainder of the time chiefly in England and Italy. 
Returning home in fuly, 1830, he was elected, in the course of 1831, to the professorship of 
Greek in his Alma Mater, and held that office for the next fifteen years. During the early 
portion of his incumbency he published editions of the Alceslis of Euripides, Camb., 1833, 
i2mo; the Antigone of Sophocles, 1835, 121110; the Prometheus of sEschylus, 1837, 121110; 
the Electro, of Sophocles, 1837, 1 21110; and the Gorgias of Plato, chiefly according to Stall- 
baum's Text, 1842, 121110 — which, taken together, constitute a more considerable contribution 
to Greek learning than had been made by any earlier Greek scholar in the United States. 
The able and critical C. C. Felton, reviewing these productions in the North American, said : 
" Professor Woolsey has now completed his proposed course oi Greek Tragedies. He has 
given specimens from among the best works of the three masters in ,111 agreeable form, and 
accompanied by a body of notes which deserve all praise." A. P. Peabody, in the same 
periodical, wrote : " We have been astonished to find how easily they (Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4) have 
initiated the veriest novices in Greek into the ancient drama." 



i 2 6 ENCYCLOPEDIA 

In 1S42 Professor Woolsey was of a committee that established the New Englatider, the 
Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon being the principal founder and contributor. President Woolsey" s 
papers, we understand, number over sixty. Among these, four extensive articles on the 
Revival of Learning in the Middle Ages, several on Divorce, especially in the United States, 
and three on the Treaty of Washington, together with an address on the Life and Services of 
President Day, have been the most noticeable. Those on Divorce were afterwards 
enlarged and published in a separate work, entitled Essays on Divorce and Divorce 
Legislation, with special reference to the United States ( New York, 1869; 1 21110. p. 308). 
( )n such a topic as this opinions are widely divergent. The Christian public, however, gave 
them close attention, in view of " the exactness and thoroughness with which they discussed 
the legal effects of this great question, as well as from the sound discrimination displayed in 
the examination of its social aspects." 

In 1S45 the health of his wife required Professor Woolsey to be absent from his post for 
a considerable portion of the year, during which he visited England, France and Italy, and had 
the great satisfaction of going to Athens, and of traveling into the Peloponnesus and Bceotia, 
Before his return President Day had determined to resign the office which he had filled with 
most eminent success and acceptance ; and on finding that it was the earnest and general 
wish of the Trustees, the Faculty, ami the public that he should be the successor of that 
gentleman, Professor Woolsey, after some weeks of hesitation, consented to occupy his place, 
which he did for the next quarter n( a century. His next volume consisted of Disco'n scs and 
Addresses at the Ordination of Rev. Theodore D. Woolsey, LL. D., and ILis Inauguration as 
President of Yale College, October 21, 1S46 (Xew Haven, 1846; 8vo, p. 100). In his 
Inauguration Discourse he expatiated upon the value of a classical eduation. The preacher 
was an exemplification of his own theory, and as such had been honored by a diploma of LL. 
D. from the Wesleyan University in the preceding year. A Historical Discoui se pronounced 
before the graduates of Yale College one hundred and lift)' years after the foundation ol that 
institution, was his next publication, and was issued in 1850. Had it been expanded into one 
or even two volumes, it would doubtless have given greater satisfaction. 

being, by his election to the President's chair, divorced from the teaching of Creek, Dr. 
Woolsey gave instructions by text-book and lectures in History. Political Economy and 
International Law. The latter subject, to which he bail not been wholly a stranger, received 
from him a <>ood deal ol attention, and after some fourteen years of study and instruction he 
published, in i860, his Introduction to the Study of International Law, Designed as an Aid in 
Teaching and in Historical Studies. Revised and enlarged editions have since been published 
— \\\d in all — each containing improvements on the imperfect first one. Some of the highest 
living authorities have commended this work in the warmest terms. " It is not only excellent 
in itself," said the North American Revieiv, "but it meets a want long felt. Till now there 
has not been a fit text-book on international law for our college classes. For this use 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 127 

President Woolsey's work is especially adapted " It is now used extensively in the a< ademii al 
ami collegiate institutions of the United States, and is also a text book in tin- English 
universities. It has been republished twice in England, lias been translated into Chinese 
under the superintendence of Dr. W. A. P. Martin, President of the Imperial Tungwai 
College, and also into Japanese 

In 1 87 1, at the ripe age of seventy years, Dr. Woolsey resigned the presidency of the 
University over whose fortunes he had presided so long, and afterward manifested the deepest 
interest in its welfare as a member of tin- Board of Trustees, or Fellows, as the charter of the 
College calls them. In the same year appeared in New York a volume of sermons from his 
pen, entitled, The Religion of the Past and the Future ; also two sermons, published in Xew 
Haven, on Serving our Generation, and God's Guidance in Youth. After the death of Professor 
Francis Lieber, in 1872, President Woolsey re-edited, with notes, his work on Civil Liberty 
and Self-Government (Philadelphia, 8vo, 1874) ; also his Manual of Political Ethics (2 vols. 8vo, 
1874). In 1878 Dr. Woolsey also published a work in two large volumes, entitled Political 
Science ; or, The State Theoretically and Pi actically Considered, which contains the results of the 
researches and reflections of many years. He also published sundry single sermons, and was 
a contributor to the Bibliotlieca Sacra, Biblical Repjstory, fow nal of the American Oriental 
Society. College Ccuraut (Xew Haven), Independent, etc., etc, and also translated for Dr. 
Andrews' Latin-English Lexicon, founded on the larger Latin-German Lexicon of Dr. William 
Freund (Xew York, 1851). His eulogy on the late President C. C. Felton, in the Smithsonian 
Report, 1 86 1, and his contributions to the Boston Lectures for 1S70, entitled Christianity and 
Scepticism, all deserve mention in the record of a busy and beneficent life. He published a 
small book on Communism and Socialism — theories which are shaking the foundations of 
European empires, and which make themselves telt even in our Democratic republic — the 
principal matter of which was first published in the Independent, an influential Xew York 
weekly newspaper. 

Fx-President Woolsey, in his seventy-ninth year, devoted a considerable part of his time 
to the revision of the Xew Testament, he being a member and the chairman of the American 
company engaged in that work in concert with the British revisers. "Through desire, a man 
having separated himself intermeddled] with all knowledge," is a generalization whose justice 
this truly representative American scholar most thoroughly vindicated. For several years he 
was one of the regents of the Smithsonian Institution, and for twenty-five years, until he had 
reached the age of seventy, one of the most prominent college presidents in the land. Dr. 
Noah Porter, his chosen successor, forcibly expressed the estimate of Dr. Woolsey, by all who 
knew him best, in the words: "As a scholar, President Woolsey was distinguished for the 
exactness of his knowledge, the extent of his erudition, and the breadth and sagacity of his 
judgment ; as a teacher, for the glow of his imaginative ami ethical spirit, and for the vigor of 
his impartiality in searching after and imparting the truth ; as a theologian, for the extent of 



i 2 8 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

his biblical knowledge, the catholicitj and candor of his theological opinions, and the fervor of 
his" child-like faith; as a friend, for the warmth and endurance of his attachments; and as a 
man, for a rare assemblage of qualities which have secured to him an enviable place in the 
love and respect of his generation. Few men have been more distinguished in this country 
for eminence in so great a variety of departments of scholarship and culture, and few men 
have secured for themselves the solid respect of so great a number of their countrymen tor 
high personal and moral excellence." 

President Woolsey was married in September, 1833, to Elizabeth ML, daughter of Josiah 
Salisbury. She died in November, 1S52, and he soon after married Sarah S., daughter of 
Gilman Prichard, of Boston, Mass. He died July 1, 1889. 




OF BIOGRAPHY. 120 



BEDLE, JOSEPH DORSETT, LL. D., Governor. Justice of the Supreme Court, and 
lawyer, of New Jersey, was born at Middletown Point (Matawan), county of Mon- 
mouth, in that State, January 5, 1831. He is of English descent, and his ancestors 
were among the early settlers of the State. His father was Thomas I. Bedle, a 
merchant, and his mother, Hannah Dorsett, whose family came to Monmouth county from 
Bermuda over a century and a half ago. The chief part of his early education was obtained 
at the academy in Middletown Point, which was famous in that section of the State He read 
law five years, a longer period than usual, the most of which time was spent in the office of 
the late I [on William L. Dayton, at Trenton, New Jersey, but during that time he attended 
the law school at Ballston Spa, New York, one winter, and also pursued his studies a short 
time with Hon. Henry S. Little in his native town. While engaged in the study of law he 
devoted much of his time in acquiring knowledge of a historical and literary character, particu- 
larly connected with the profession of the law. He was admitted to practice by the Supreme 
Court of New Jersey June, 1853, and immediately settled in Middletown Point, where he 
soon acquired an excellent practice and reputation, his industry and ability being early marked. 
In the spring of 1S55 he moved to Freehold, the county seat of Monmouth county, when- he 
immediately took high rank as a sound and skillful lawyer and advocate. His closeness of 
study and professional application were prominent traits in his character, and his advance at 
the liar was so rapid that in March, 1865, while only thirty-four years of age he was nominated 
by Governor Parker, and confirmed by the Senate, as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the 
State to succeed Hon. Elias B. D. Ogden, one of New Jersey's distinguished judges, who had 
lately died. 

The circuits of fudge Ogden were in the northern part of the State, embracing the 
counties of Hudson, Bergen and Passaic, and to these Judge Bedle succeeded. The business 
ol these circuits was heavy, and a change of residence for convenience became necessary. 
For that reason he moved to Jersey City, where he has since resided. 

The judicial career of Judge Bedle covered about ten years, during which time, in the 
Supreme Court and the Court of Errors ami Appeals, and at the Circuits, he gained a high 
reputation for a most faithful, intelligent and just administration of the duties of his office. 
He had strong common sense, a clear knowledge of the law, a fearless integrity, and in the 
trial of jury cases his judicial qualities were pre-eminent. His prominence upon the bench, 
and satisfactory performance of his duties, naturally drew the attention of the public towards 
him, and in such a way that while he was upon a second term, having been reappointed Judge, 
there grew up a strong disposition to elect him Governor. The country was then very much 
depressed, and the times were hard, and there was a tendency in the minds ot the people to 
select an Executive who had been out of the arena of politics. Although Judge Bedle had 
'J 



no ENCYCLOPAEDIA 



'j 



always been a Democrat, yet no partisanship had been shown on the bench, and he was looked 
upon as able to satisfy their demands. 

The Democratic Convention nominated him for Governor in the fall of 1S74, and he was 
elected by the Urge majority of 13,233, over a very popular competitor. Previous to his 
nomination lie publicly announced, in answer to a letter addressed to him upon the subject, 
that he was not a candidate, and although if nominated would not decline, yet he would take 
no part in the campaign, but would continue to perform the duties of his office as usual, making 
no personal effort whatever for his election, and that if the people determined that he should 
serve them as Governor he would then resign his office of Judge, and obey their will. He 
strictly carried out his purposes without swerving, and was elected to the office of Governor 
untrammeled and without any entanglements. No person could have entered upon the office 
ol Governor with more independence than he did. He was inaugurated January 19, 1875, 
and served the constitutional term of three years. A writer in a biography of the Governor 
says: " Most unmistakably was he called to his honorable post by the popular voice, whose 
expectations were in no sense disappointed. His administration from the first was marked 
by ability, prudence, and a patriotism inspired by an earnest desire for the public welfare. 
By his statesmanlike views and noble aims he firmly intrenched himself in the respect and ■ 
regard of the community." 

He took an active part in behalf of the State in promoting the success of the great 
Centennial in Philadelphia, in 1S76, and much of the honor of the State in that exhibition was 
due to him. During his term occurred the famous riots of 1877. His management at that 
time, both of the civil and military power of the State, showed a judgment and prudence of 
the highest type, and resulted in the complete preservation of the peace of. the State, and the 
opening of the great lines of travel therein. As Governor he was always a foe to extravagance 
and fraud, and his administration was wise, pure and economical. 

Upon his retirement from office in January, 1878, he resumed, in Jersey City, the practise 
of the: law, and from that time to the present has been actively engaged therein. At the close 
of his term as Governor, he declined to return to the bench, although then offered a reappoint- 
ment, preferring to pursue his profession while in health and vigor, and in the full maturity ot 
middle age. His success as a practitioner justified his conclusion, and no lawyer in the State 
has more important matters in his hands than he, in all branches ot the law. 

It has been said of him : — " As a Judge on the bench, as a Governor of the State, in his 
practise at the bar, and in his deportment as a citizen, the weight of exalted character was 
always conspicuous on his side of the scales." The same writer also says: — "Judge Bedle is 
,111 instance of a man who, at a comparatively early age, achieves the highest honors of his 
State, apparently without having passed through any of the highways and byways ot the 
politician. Such instances, in these days, are so rare that they must be set down as excep- 
tional in the history of politics, in this or any other country. His progress to the high 



OF BIOGRAPHY. t 3 t 

positions he has occupied lias been quiet, dignified, and, we may saw almost noiseless. We 
at no time find him pushing himself into any of the high places he has occupied. A most 
worth)- example surely, and one which we generally have to seek lor in the passed and bett< r 
times of the republic." 

His manners are affable and kind, yet he is a man of strong decision of character, ami 
his business energy is unflagging. 

His accomplished wife, Althea F. Randolph, is the eldest daughter of the late Hon. 
Bennington F. Randolph, of New Jersey. They have living four sons and one daughter ; 
Bennington F., Joseph D., Thomas F., Althea F., and Randolph, Bedle. 

In 1875, Princeton College conferred upon him the degree of LL. I)., having some years 
before oiven him the decree of A. M. 




132 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 



©KEEN, HENRY \Y., Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, and 
Chancellor, was born near Trenton, in 1S04. This eminent jurist has occupied the 
two highest judicial positions in the courts of New Jersey. Justice cannot possibly 
be done to him and his memory in the short space necessarily allotted to 
him here. 

Alter receiving the most careful preparation, he entered Princeton College, and graduated 
in [820, at the unprecedentedly youthful age ot sixteen. He was a born lawyer, and in no 
other profession could he possibly have attained such eminence as he did as Counsellor, Chiel 
Justice, and Chancellor. After graduation he entered the office of Charles Ewing, afterwards 
Chief Justice. Very little is known of his life as a student, but it can well be imagined how 
master and pupil must have been drawn together. The young man was always sedate, sober, 
and studious ; his distinguished teacher was the greatest jurist of his time, and amply 
equipped to direct such an inquiring mind as that which he must have found in his youthful 
scholar. Young' Green was an enthusiastic student, and delighted to dig and delve into the 
abstruse questions which were ever presented to him in the many cases which came to the 
office in the extensive practise of Mr. Ewing. His term of studentship was much longer than 
was required by the rules of the court, as he did not attain his majority until [825, and could 
not have been licensed as an attorney until he was twenty-one years of age. In that year he 
became an attorney-at-law, and three years later a counsellor. He came to the bar fully 
equipped to meet all the requirements of his profession, by a sound legal knowledge, by an 
intimate acquaintance with the many abstract principles of the science ol which he was to 
become a most brilliant exponent. The courts soon learned that in the young advocate was 
one who was prepared to grapple with the principles found in any case submitted to him, and 
his fellow-members of the bar feared him as a most formidable antagonist. He shortly 
became a leading counsellor and advocate at the capital of the State, and was employed in 
almost every cause of importance which came before the courts. His practise was very largel) 
made up of arguments in cases of an appellate character, before the highest tribunals of the 
State. In submitting his argument it was remarked by older practitioners that he never lost 
sight of any point in the case which in any way aided him or his client, and it was once 
jokingly said of him that in preparing a case for argument on a certiorari he would present at 
least fifteen points, one of which and perhaps the last would be conclusive, and the others not 
at all tenable, but that he argued all alike. 

He was a Whig of the old school, and his party hoped to strengthen itself by inducing 
him to become a candidate for office. So in 1.X42 he consented to run for the Legislature, and 
was elected by a large majority. But he had no taste for any other life than that ol a lawyer, 
and ever after declined any candidacy for office except such as was connected with his 





Cma^/IT: 




OF BIOGRAPHY 



»33 



profession. In 1844 he was made a member of the Constitutional Convention, in which body 
he exercised a masterful influence, and aided materially in directing and moulding its delibera 
dons. In 1S46 the term of office of Chief Justice Hornblower expired, and all eyes were 
turned towards Henry \V. Green as the man, above all others, fitted for the place. He was 
not a popular man ; his manners were austere, repulsive to many for their severity ; he was a 
moody man, at times genial and condescending, at others repellant and severe; so that his 
appointment was not due to any wave of popular favor. He was eminently fitted for the 
place of Chief Justice. Not a breath tarnished his fair name ; he was of the strictest integrity; 
he was a profound lawyer, a learned jurist, of a quick, alert mind, capable of the closest 
analysis, and able to grasp every point involved in a suit, whether counsel had referred to it 
or not. Main an astute lawyer, after ar</uin<r a case before the court, imagining 1 that he had 
exhausted argument, was quite astonished and somewhat mortified that he had not discovered 
points which the Chief Justice, in his emphatic manner, would state in his opinion. His 
decisions were regarded with great favor by the bar, were rarely overruled by an appellate 
court, and have been frequently quoted with commendation by English courts. His language 
was clear and lucid, and of the purest English; his sentences compact and forceful; his 
charges to juries were models, easily understood and rarely antagonized. 

He remained in office for fourteen years, two full terms, and then Governor Olden, one 
of the wisest men who ever occupied the gubernatorial chair in New Jersey, elevated him to 
the position of Chancellor. He filled the Chancellor's place for nearly a full term, when ill- 
health forced him to resign, and he died in 1876. 

He was of a remarkable and dignified presence, full six feet in height, tall, erect, and 
finely formed. He was not calculated to attract the crowd ; his nature was moulded in too 
noble a form to delight in the society of any other than the intellectual and cultured. He 
ranly unbent himsell from his dignity and reserve, except with a few favored intimates. But 
he was a grand man, of the noblest qualities, both mental and physical ; he heeded the 
demands of the community upon him as a citizen, and was earnest in many good works, espe 
daily those of a substantial, enduring nature. The cause of education received firm and 
decided support from him in many directions. He was largely interested in the success and 
in the affairs of his alma Dialer and in the Princeton Theological Seminary. For many years 
he was a trustee of Princeton College, and for a long time previous to his death had been 
President of the Hoard of Managers of the Seminary. — The Green Bag. 



134 ENCYCLOPEDIA 

>^^VIXON, [OHN T., LL. I >., of Trenton, New Jersey, late Judge of the United 

I States District Court for New Jersey. His life was not one of stirring incident or 

^A v» brilliant achievement, but it was a life devoted throughout to the faithful discharge 

of a succession of honorable duties, and adorned with rare graces of personal 
character. Teacher, lawyer, legislator for the State and the; Nation, compiler of the laws — 
and at last for nearly twenty years a Judge of the Federal Court — these are the stages of his 
career, and throughout them all he displayed a mental capacity equal to every occasion, a 
personal character absolutely above reproach, and a charm of manner which endeared him to 
all with whom his varied duties brought him in contact. 

Judge Nixon was a native of New Jersey. I le was born in the village of Fairton, in the 
county of Cumberland, on the 31st of August, 1820. His father was Jeremiah S. Nixon, who 
then lived at Fairton, but removed to Bridgeton during his childhood. He was graduated at 
the College of New Jersey in 1841. 

When we are reviewing the life of a man who has distinguished himself in the public 
service we naturally ask who were his associates in the time of his training for his work. In 
the case of Judge Nixon we can name a goodly list Among his classmates were Judge John 
Craig Biddle, of Philadelphia ; Francis 1'. Blair, of Missouri ; the Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, 
D. D., of Brooklyn; Hon. Amzi Dodd, of Newark, New Jersey; Rev. John T. Duffield, 
D. 1)., of Princeton ; Rev. Archibald Alexander Hodge, D. D., of Princeton; I Ion. Fdward 
W. Scudder, one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, and the Hon. Richard 
\\ . Walker, of Alabama, 

Judge; Nixon took a high rank in a class which included such men as these, and it is 
interesting to note that in the preceding year he was named as one of the Junior orators to 
represent Whig Hall by the unanimous vote .of the Society. 

On leaving college he returned to Princeton where he was engaged for some time as a 
teacher of lam/uao-cs, but he soon removed to Staunton, in the State of Virginia, where he 
became the tutor and a member of the family of Judge Pennypacker, then the Judge of the 
United States Court for the Western District of Virginia. I le was admitted to the bir in that 
State in 1845, and it was his intention to reside there. He had, in fact, made arrangements 
to form a partnership with Judge Pennypacker, who had been elected to the Senate of the 
United States. But the death of the Senator, soon after taking his seat, changed his plans and 
he returned to his native county and entered upon the practise of law in New Jersey in 
connection with the late Charles E. Elmer, the son of Daniel Elmer, who had then lately 
retired from his position, one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of New Jersey. 

He pursued the practise of the law for several years, without interruption, and with great 
ability and success. As a lawyer he was honest, faithful and learned. The chicanery, arts 
and cunning devices of what the world denominates as the sharp lawyer never received a 








s. 




OF BIOGRAPHY. 135 

moment's countenance from him. His wonderful influence with juries was due to the conviction 
which they imbibed that he presented the cause to them in a fair and honest manner, and that 
neither in the statement of facts nor in the presentation of points of law would he attempt to 
mislead. 

But, as so often happens with the popular and successful lawyer, he was soon drawn into 
political life. In 1849 he was elected to the Legislature, and there In: became known through- 
out the State. In 1850 he was re-elected, and was made; Speaker of the House of Assembly, 
and filled that office with marked ability. He: was then thirty years old, and it is interesting 
to turn back to the few words he uttered in entering upon his duties. They give, as it wen-, 
the keynote of his conduct in all the varied duties he was to be called upon to fulfill. He said : 
"Let us always remember that our obligations to the State rise infinitely higher than our 
obligations to party ; ami that every measure should be considered with reference to its general 
and not to its local effect. Let the differences of opinion which must necessarily arise from 
the very constitution of our minds, our various habits of thought and our differing geographical 
positions, be tempered with gentlemanly courtesy, and thus after the close of our labors here 
we shall be able to return to our homes cheered alike by the voice of conscience, and the 
approbation of our fellow-citizens." 

This first official utterance indicated the guiding purpose of his life — to be honest, upright, 
candid, courteous in all public labors and private duties, so that at the close of them all he 
might be cheered, as he was at last, in abundant measure, by the voice. of conscience and the 
approbation of his fellow-men. 

After two terms in the Legislature he devoted himself with new diligence to his profession, 
and in 1858, in the midst of the confusion of parties that preceded the civil war, Judge Nixon 
became a candidate for the Congress of the United States. He ran independently of all 
former political organizations, and was elected by a majority of over two thousand. He was 
re-elected as a Republican in i860, and thus he occupied a seat in the House of Represen- 
tatives during the long contest for the Speakership, which resulted in the election of ex Gov- 
ernor Pennington— at the culmination of the strife between the forces of slavery and freedom 
which led to the civil war, and during the earlier stages of that war. His action throughout 
that long strife for the control of the House had much to do with the result. Indeed, tin 
history of the closing scenes of that contest, as he has himself detailed them, shows that his influ- 
ence and vote were controlling in the final choice of Governor Pennington. 1 le was an active 
member of the Committee on Commerce, and devoted himself with his accustomed diligem e 
and fidelity to the duties then so grave and full of difficulties to the legislator of a nation 
involved in civil war. 

At the close of his second term he desired the appointment of fudge of' the United 
States District Court, which he afterwards obtained, but President Lincoln appointed Richard 
S. Field, who was then serving a short term as Senator 



136 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

He returned to his practise in Bridgeton, and continued the labors lie had already under 
t iken in preparing under the provisions of Acts of the Legislature, successive editions of the 
Digest of the S'alufe Laws of New Jersey. Judge Elmer, his father-in-law, had preceded 
him in a similar duty, and Elmers Digest, published in [838, was, before Judge Nixon's first 
edition in 1855, the familiar compilation of the written law of the State. New editions of 
Nixon's Digest followed in 1861 and 1868, and he published /Vixen's Forms, which was also 
.in outgrowth or descendant of the book of Forms published by [udge Elmer. 

In May, 1870, he was appointed by President Grant Judge of the United States District 
Court on the resignation of Judge Field, who died on th • 25th of that month. This office he 
held until his death, on the 28th of September, 1889, his term of service covering nearly 
twenty years, and his term of life having nearly reached three score and ten. 

Before speaking of him in his capacity as a judge, allusion should be made to his labors 
in other lines of duty. He was not alone a good lawyer, a wise legislator and a learned 
judge, he was faithful and eminent in other fields — social, educational and religious. He was 
elected a trustee of the College of New Jersey, in 1864, to succeed Judge Elmer, and at the 
same time with Professor Joseph Henry, and served for several years on the Committees on 
Finance and on Library and Apparatus, and was chairman of the latter committee. He was 
frequently chosen to represent his Presbytery in the General Assembly of the Presbyterian 
Church, and was made one of the delegates from the United States to the Pan-Presbyterian 
Council which met at Edinburgh in 1877 ; and while on this mission the degree of Doctor ol 
Laws was conferred upon him by the College of New Jersey. He was also designated by 
the Assembly in connection with Judge William Strong of the United States Supreme Court, 
Judge Allison of Philadelphia, Judge Breckenridge of St. Louis, and others, to revise the 
Hook of Discipline, which, as prepared by this committee, is now the law of the Presbyterian 
Church. In 1883 he was appointed a director of the Theological Seminar)- at Princeton. 

He was one of the four residuary legatees of the large estate of Mr. John C. (In en. 
This bequest was a striking proof of the confidence which the character of fudge Nixon for 
integrity and prudence had inspired. Mr. Green had known him well, and he selected him, 
together with his relatives, Caleb S.Green and Charles E. Green, and his friend, Robert 
Lenox Kennedy, as the men to whom he could entrust absolutely his estate, amounting to 
about 57.000,000, without any direction or restriction as to the manner in which they should 
dispose ol it. We are not able to give the exact terms of the bequest, but we know that they 
were such as to imply the most unreserved confidence that these chosen friends would dis 
pense this vast property as the testator himself would have done it his life could have been sut'li 
ciently prolonged. It is not necessary to state any details as to the manner in which this large 
trust was fulfilled. Much of the estate was devoted to the needs of the College oi New 
Jersey; a part went to endow the school at Lawrenceville, and in both ol these instances 

[udge Nixon discharged the duty of a faithful almoner of the benefactions of his friend. And 



OF BIOGRAPHY. I37 

it is not necessary to add that none of the estate was wasted in any of the litigation which so 
often foils the efforts of the charitable to make their wealth a permanent source of good to 
those who come after them. 

He was elected a member of the New Jersey Historical Society May 15, 1873. He had 
during the preceding- year read before the Society a paper on "The circumstances attending 
the election of William Pennington, of New Jersey, as Speaker of the Thirty-sixth Congress." 
He was elected First Vice-President of the Society, and was re-elected annually until his death. 
In January, [879, he was appointed Chairman of the Committee to Enquire as to the History 
of the Exemption of Brotherton Indians from Taxation. In January, 1KS4, he read a paper 
before the Society on the D/e and Character of Judge L. Q. C. Elmer, and on the 20th ol 
May, 1SS6, he was appointed a member of the Committee on the Centennial of the Inaugura- 
tion of Washington. 

Thus amidst the burdens of official duty he was ever ready to render service in the church, 
the college and the institutions of the State. And his zeal in these good works was always 
according to knowledge. To all these duties which lay outside of the lines of his professional 
and judicial life he brought the mental and moral qualities which distinguished him throughout 
his career. And it was indeed the harmonious blending of these qualities that formed his 
true distinction. Observing his conduct one felt the truth of Emerson's remark, that "morality 
is religion in practice," and in turning from this phase of life to observe him during his long 
service on the bench, we are ready to say with Charles Sumner, that "the true grandeur of 
humanity is in moral elevations sustained, enlightened and decorated by the intellect 
of man." 

It remains then to say a few words as to his character as a Judge, for upon his services 
in this capacity his fame must chiefly rest. He desired the appointment of United States 
Judge, at the close of his Congressional career, as we have said, yet when it came to him 
suddenly, upon the resignation of Judge Field, he entered upon its unaccustomed duties with 
much diffidence, but with his characteristic earnestness of purpose. His training as a lawyer 
anil as a compiler of the statutes had qualified him fully lor the new task devolved upon him. 
And his experience in the National Legislature during the early stages of the war had enabled 
him to comprehend clearly the nature and extent of the novel duties imposed upon the Federal 
Judiciary in the States, in consequence of the civil war and its results. Before the war the 
District Court of the United States in New Jersey had been of little importance. Tin office 
of Judge of that Court was always one of dignity but in the nature of the case it was not one 
of responsibility or labor, for it was seldom that matters of any consequence were brought 
before it. Seven judges only occupied that bench during the Inst century ot the existence ol 
the court, now just closed. It ma)' be interesting to name them here. Robert Morris, from 
1 700 to 1 S 1 5 ; William Sanford Pennington, from 1S15 to 1826; William Rossell, from 1826 
to 1S40; Mahlon Dickerson, for only six months in the latter year; Philemon Dickerson, his 

14 



i 3 8 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

In-other, from March, 1S41, to the latter part of 1862; Richard S. Field, from January, 1S63, 
to May, [870, and John T. Nixon, from May, 1871, to September, [889. 

During the seven years of fudge Field's incumbency the- duties of the Court became 
much more important, especially because of the grave questions arising out of the civil war, 
and from the necessary extension of the powers of the Federal judiciary in the States. But 
shortly before the appointment of Judge Nixon several circumstances concurred to create a 
marked advance in the scope of the powers of the Court and the extent and importance of its 
business. The bankrupt law was passed in 1867, and the administration of its important and 
intricate provisions was chielly entrusted to the District Courts of the United States. About 
the time of fudge Nixon's accession the machinery of this law had come into full working 
order, and it became his duty to enter into at once upon this novel and difficult branch of 
judicial administration. During the year preceding his appointment the law establishing the 
Circuit Courts of the United States was passed, and William McKennan was appointed by 
President Grant as the Judge of the Third Circuit, embracing Pennsylvania, Delaware and 
New fersey — a position which he has filled with distinguished ability since that time. By that 
law it was provided that the Circuit Courts shall be held by the Circuit Justice or by the 
Circuit Judge of the Circuit or by the District Judge of the District, sitting alone, or by any 
two or more of the said Judges sitting together. 

The duties of the Circuit Judge in so large a district, embracing the second city in the 
Union, made it impossible for him to give full attention to the increasing business of the Court 
in New Jersey, and the result was that year by year more of the Circuit Court business 
devolved upon the District Judge. 

The vast internal revenue system made necessary by the war was in full operation when 
fudge Nixon assumed his duties. And the situation of New Jersey between two great cities, 
ami the large extent of her manufactures, from which internal revenue was derived, caused a 
very large increase in both the criminal and civil business of the District Court. 

The Customs Collection District of the City of New York comprised all the shores of New 
fersey in the counties of Bergen and Hudson as far as the mouth of Kill von Kull, and thus 
a large part of the business arising from that source found its way into the Federal Court of 
New Jersey. Besides this it was soon discovered by suitors in patent cases in the two great 
States on either side of New Jersey, that here was a tribunal in which such controversies 
could receive prompt and intelligent consideration. Such cases are not confined to the 
locality of their origin. They seek a tribunal which is found fitted to dispose of them carefully 
and without delay. 

Such was the varied and novel character of the duties assumed, without any special prepara- 
tion or experience by Judge Nixon twenty years ago. I le had been trained in the atmosphere 
of the common law in a small town, removed from the sphere of the active commercial life of 
cities. 1 le was at once called upon to administer the law both as an equity and common law 



OF BIOGRAPHY. i 39 

judge in a State which is one of the few which retain a separate system of the equity practise. 
He was required to act indiscriminately as a judge in criminal cases arising under multifarious 
and intricate Federal Statutes ; as an admiralty judge, in cases of maritime law, wholly foreign 
to his experience; as an equity judge, sitting in the Circuit Court with its jurisdiction much 
enlarged by the provisions of the Act of Congress of 1875 ! am ' as a judge in patent cases, 
which increased more and more in consequence of the patience, ability and urbanity which he 
brought to their consideration. 

We have thought it desirable to state thus clearly the nature of the work to which Judge 
Nixon devoted the latter years of his life, because, although his personal worth and his 
judicial ability are so well known, yet it is only by a consideration of the wide scope of his 
labors that their true value can be appreciated. 

The following extract from the closing portion of a paper read by A. O. Keasbey before 
the New Jersey Historical Society, from which much of this article has been compiled, conveys 
the high estimate in which the memory of Judge Nixon is held : " I feel reluctant to attempt 
to portray his characteristics as a judge. It rarely happens to one lawyer to see so much of 
the workings of one judicial mind. For fifteen years I was in a position to observe his whole 
judicial conduct. In my official duties and in private practise it fell to me to argue before him 
a large proportion of all the causes he heard. But, perhaps, for that reason it would be well 
for me to abstain from any effort to depict his judicial character. A few points, however, I 
will venture to touch upon. He was eminently a just and upright judge. It was in his nature 
to be fair and outspoken. He had no concealments or evasions. He welcomed all who 
sought equity, and required them to do equity. There was no room in his court for sharp 
practise, nor any favor for idle technicality. In the strongest sense he held straight all the 
commandments of justice, all false ways he utterly abhorred. Although trained especially in 
the common law, these qualities led him to become a wise and capable Chancellor, as we 
understand the name." 

Mr. Phillemore in the preface to his work on Roman law, made this bitter criticism on Un- 
English common law courts of that day : " At present, if a principle shows itself in our 
courts, it is like a cask in a rough sea, sometimes one part appears, sometimes another, 
never the whole." The reverse of this was true of the court over which fudge Nixon 
presided. He took a large; view of the questions that came before him, and strove to see 
them on all sides, in the light of a strong common sense. 

He was also endowed in a large degree with that excellent judicial gift — patience, nol 
only in investigation but in the hearing of cases. He never failed to listen to counsel with 
that manifestly interested attention which is so winning and so encouraging to forensic effort. 
This was, 1 believe, the secret of his wide popularity, as well as ol his success .is a judge. 1 le 
desired to hear all that could be said, for the sake of counsel, that the)- might be helped to 
say it well, and for himself that he might " the better judge." 



140 ENCYCLOPEDIA 

And as a last and crowning characteristic, he was full of kindness and never-failing cour- 
tesy. I have often heard him speak with admiration of Horace Binney. Let me apply to 
[udge Nixon in this respect the words used by Mr. Binney in his eulogy of Charles Chauncey. 
I le said : " He was conspicuous through life in all relations, at the bar and everywhere else, 
for his good will to everybody. I think he was distinguished from all the men I have known. 
by an habitual and unaffected expression of benevolence. It seemed to be a necessity of his 
nature that he should not only feel but also show it, and show it to all, in every way, by his 
looks, words and acts. The gentle and gracious smile, the cordial grasp of the hand, the 
placid attention to all, a serene and equal tenor on all occasions — these were his characteristics 
which all hearts acknowledge ; in which I think 1 have never known him equalled, and certainly 
have never known him surpassed." 

This was said of one of the lawyers of fifty years ago. All the members of the bar of our 
own and other States, who have engaged in their legal contests before that face — venerable 
beyond its years, with its glory of white hair — and beneath those eyes beaming with kindness, 
will recognize it as a true picture of fudge Nixon. And all to whom that picture had become 
familiar felt a keen regret when, about two years before his death his sight became impaired, 
and with unabated mental power he was compelled to withdraw, in a great measure, from 
his active labors on the bench. It was in his nature to follow the injunction, " sow good services ; 
sweet remembrances will grow from them." And the reward followed, for such remembrances 
did spring up around him abundantly, in his partial retirement from labor, and while the light 
was fading from his eyes ; and they will flourish still when the light is wholly gone. 

His brethren of his circuit, deeply attached to him, were eager to relieve him to the extent 
of their power, and he continued to discharge official duties until the summer vacation of 1889, 
during which he died at Stockbridge, in Massachusetts, on the 28th of September of that 
year. 

The varied labors of his life were closed just within the period fixed by law for voluntary 
retirement. 

His work remains — as lawyer, citizen, legislator, almoner and judge — a work which 
redounds to the honor of his native State. 

fudge Nixon was married on the 24th of September, 185 1, to Mary II. Elmer (the 
youngest daughter of the I Ion. Lucius O. C. Elmer, who, as United States District Attorney, 
compiler of the laws, member of Congress and Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, 
occupied during a long life a marked and honorable position in the State). The issue from 
this union was, Lucius Elmer, born September 23, 1852, died October 13, 1853 ; Mary Elmer, 
horn March 24, 1854; Caroline Elmer, born November 12, 1850; Eleanor Graeme, born 
1 Jecember 15, 1864. 




Ji 




/ tf4jar*^^ 



OF BIOGRAPHY. i 4 r 

CANNON, HENRY WHITE, President of the Chase National Bank, born in Delhi, 
Delaware county, New York, September 27, 1X50. He is a direct descendant on 
his mother's side from Peregrine White, who was the first white child horn in New 
England, November 20, 1620, on hoard the "Mayflower" as she lay in Cape Cod 
harbor. His grandmother on his mother's side;, Marietta Jennings, was a descendanl oi 
William Jennings, of Suffolk, England. His maternal grandfather was a distinguished soldier 
in the Revolution, and perished, while a prisoner, in the old "Sugar House" in New York, 
His grandfather, Benjamin Cannon, was a native of Connecticut, born in Hebron, Tolland 
county, in 1776; he removed to New York State in 1810, and settled in Tompkins, the name 
of which was, in his honor, changed to Cannonsville. He was one of the most keen-sighted 
and sagacious business men of his time ; he won an enviable reputation, ami sustained a char 
acter of unblemished integrity. His wife, also a native of Connecticut, was born in Fairfield, 
A. D. 1799. 

George Bliss Cannon, son of Benjamin and Persis Cannon, was born in Cannonsville, 
New York, May 3, 1823, where he resided until 1849, when he removed to Delhi, where he 
was active in business and highly regarded by his towns-people. He was appointed postmaster 
by President U. S. Grant, and held that office during all the time that he; resided in I >elhi, and 
his resignation was not accepted until he had removed his family from that town. I le was a 
member of the Presbyterian Church, and a close personal friend of Horace Greeley, and 
counted among his friends many of the most prominent members of the Republican party. 

In early life he married Ann Eliza, daughter of the late Elijah and Marietta White, of 
Franklin, New York. She was born November 2, 182=;. The issue of this marriage was two 
sons, Henry W. and James G. Cannon. George Bliss Cannon died October 10, 1890, at his 
residence in New York city. His wife and sons survive him. 

Henry W. Cannon attended the private school of his native town, and supplemented the 
excellent elementary education received therein, by stud)- in the Delaware Literary Institute. 

Electing the pursuit of banking for the occupation of coming years, he entered as clerk 
the First National Bank of Delhi, X. Y., and before the age of twenty he became Teller, 
Banking was that form ot scientific associated enterprise, for which the genius of young 
Cannon had unwonted strong affinities, desiring a larger field in which to exen ise his talent, 
he removed, in 1870, to the West, and accepted a position in the Second National Bank of St. 
Paul. Minn.: in the year following he resigned his position, and removed to Stillwater. 
Minn. Here, in 1871, being but twenty-one years of age, he organized the Lumberman's 
National Bank, and for thirteen years was its Cashier, and active managing officer. 

Two years after the organization of the bank, the panic of 1873 caused the suspension 
of currency payments of many banking institutions in Minnesota and throughout tin- country, 
while Henry W. Cannon brought his bank through, paying all demands in currency. 



l 4 2 KXCYCLOP^DIA 

I Hiring the refunding of the public debt, he purchased and exchanged large amounts of 
Government bonds for the National Banks of Minnesota, frequently visiting New York and 
Washington for this purpose ; this brought him in close contact with many prominent finan- 
ciers and government officials. He also negotiated a large amount of bonds for the city of 
St. Paul. 

While a resident of Stillwater, he personally organized and carried to successful comple- 
tion a number of its most important business interests, among them the ( ias and Water Com- 
panies, of which he'Avas Treasurer and General Manager. They were all prosperous under 
his skillful management and are to-day a monument of his foresight and executive ability; he 
was also Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce. 

In 1879 Henry W. Cannon was married to Jennie O., daughter of Gold J. Curtis, a 
prominent lawyer of Minnesota, who was born in Madison county, New York, and who gave 
up his practice at the beginning of the civil war, raised a company for the Fifth Minnesota 
Volunteers, and died in the service in 1862. The issue of this union has been two sons, 
George C. Cannon, born September 23, 1882, and Henry White Cannon, Jr., born September 
10, 1887. 

In May, 1S84, at the earnest solicitation of the Congressional delegation from his 
adopted State, and by the principal bankers in New York and Chicago, Henry W. Cannon 
was appointed, by President Chester A. Arthur, Comptroller of the Currency, to succeed Hon. 
[ohn |. Knox, one of the most able men that ever filled the position. The appointment was 
not made on political grounds, although Henry W. Cannon was an earnest and active member 
of the Republican party ; his selection to succeed Comptroller Knox was a high tribute to his 
mental and moral worth, and for a man of his years something extraordinary. We must here take 
into consideration that Mr. Cannon's whole life, from the time of his leaving school in his native 
town, had been one qf preparation for just such a position as he was now called upon to fill. 
A master of banking in all its complex details, and a close student for years of all the best 
works on political economy, banking and commercial law, he was therefore well fitted to 
undertake to administer the duties pertaining to the office of Comptroller of the Currency. 
He had the friendship and best wishes of Comptroller Knox, in his arduous duties. 

The financial crisis of 1884 began in the same month that Mr. Cannon entered upon the 
duties of his office as Comptroller ; it was general, and extended throughout the country, 
exposing weakness in many unexpected places, defalcations in large numbers were found, and 
more receivers were appointed during that year than any other in the history of the Comp- 
troller's office. These receivers were all appointed by Mr. Cannon, and extraordinary labors 
were thrown upon the Comptroller's office. A number of extra bank examiners were 
employed, and in many instances, by the prompt action of Mr. Cannon, banks that otherwise 
might have suspended and gone into the hands of receivers, were undoubtedly saved by his 
timely action, and practical knowledge of banking. 



OF BIOGRAPHY. i 43 

During this panic a resolution was introduced in the United States Senate, requesting 
Comptroller Cannon to appear before the Finance Committee, and report upon the condition 
of the hanks in New York city, where it wis alleged that as the Clearing House had discontinued 
making weekly reports, the banks were in a precarious condition, and that extraordinary 
measures should be used. The following Senators were members of that Committee — Morrill, 
Sherman, Bayard, Beck, Aldrich and others. Comptroller Cannon made report to this 
Committee, showing that he was fully informed as to the condition of affairs in New York, and 
advised that no unnecessary publicity be given to their condition, and he fully convinced the 
Committee that the banks were daily increasing their cash reserves, and that it was not 
necessary to resort to legislation or extraordinary measures. Mr. Cannon's action in this 
matter was undoubtedly of great service to the banks and the country. His relations as 
Comptroller to the chairman and members of the Clearing House Committee were close and 
cordial. The corporate existence of 971 National Banks, representing a capital of over 
$270,000,000, expired during Mr. Cannon's term of office. 

The Act of July 12, 1882, under which permission was given to National Banks to extend 
their charters had been in operation but a short time, when Henry W. Cannon became 
Comptroller, and inasmuch as the charter of more than 800 banks expired during the year 
ending November i, 1885, it became necessary to give especial attention to this work. A new 
code of precedure was arranged. It was necessary, in all instances where a charter was given 
that a careful examination of the affairs of each bank should be made, and as the law provides 
that the new charter can be given only when the Comptroller is satisfied with the condition of 
the bank to be extended, the personal labor and difficult duties arising from this work were 
very great, and required arduous labor. 

Comptroller Cannon's reports for 1S84 and 1885 were highly esteemed. In both re-ports 
a number of suggestions and recommendations were made, which were worthy of note. The 
report of 1885 contained, among other things, a careful study of the bank-note issues of other 
countries, and also the following important recommendation to Congress in relation to silver 
legislation. "If it is for the best interests of the United States to issue a circulation based 
upon silver, the Comptroller believes that the circulation should be issued upon coin or 
bullion which contains a sufficient number of grains of silver to have an intrinsic value equa] 
in the markets of the world to its nominal value. * * * And the Comptroller is of the 
opinion that, under certain restrictions and regulations, it would be far more correct in 
principle to issue silver certificates based upon a deposit of silver bullion, to be valued in the 
exact proportion of silver to gold, than to continue the issue of certificates under the present 
law." The suggestion embodied in this recommendation, which was also contained in the 
report for 1SS4, has since become a law. 

During Comptroller Cannon's term of office a complete change in the political complexion 
of the Government took place ; the election of Grover Cleveland to the Presidency caused 



i 4 4 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

many changes to be made. The office of Comptroller being non-partisan, and Mr. Cannon's 
views on finance being in accord with those of President Cleveland, as they wire with 
President Arthur's, he was urged to remain during his full term of office, vi/., six years, lie 
enjoyed the confidence and esteem of the Secretaries of the Treasury with whom he served, 
and he was frequently called in consultation in regard to some of the most important measures 
connected with the administration of the National financies. Judge Folger was Secretary 
when Comptroller Cannon was first appointed, Hugh McCullough followed for an interim. 
and afterward Daniel Manning. As there seemed very little prospect ot legislation, either in 
reference to banks or silver, Comptroller Cannon preferred to return to an active business 
life, rather than to remain in Government service. Early in iS86he resigned and transferred 
his residence to New York city, February ist, and accepted the Vice-Presidency of the 
National Bank of the Republic in New York city ; the President being Hon. |ohn J. Knox, 
his predecessor in the office of Comptroller of the Currency. November i, 1886, he resigned 
from the Vice-Presidency of this bank to accept the position as President of the Chase 
National Bank of New York ; here his mature thought and ripe judgment have produced 
results that are phenominal, and Henry \V. Cannon as a member of the Clearing House 
Association Executive Committee, and President of the Chase National Bank is a power that 
will be felt for good throughout the country. 

"On the death oi Aqueduct Commissioner Howe, Mayor Grant of New York, appointed 
Mr. Cannon to the vacant commissionership as a mark of appreciation, in the name of his 
ii iw nsmen, of M r. Cannon's integrity, business judgment, industrious care of trusts undertaken, 
and his legitimate popularity in the metropolis generally. We need scarcely say that this 
token of estimation met with general approval. It goes without saying, that Mayor Grant 
h;'s evidenced his own good judgment in the selection which was made and the appointment 
recorded, without any knowledge or movement, direct or indirect, by Mr. Cannon in the 
premises. There is unusual complaint nowadays on the score of the kind of men that receive 
municipal recognition and preferment, but this is a redeeming instance and we trust we shall 
hear oi more ot them." 1 lis advice is frequently sought by the officers of other banks and by 
Treasury officials ; ami in every instance it has proven discreet and wise. In fanuary, 1891, 
he was appointed, by President Harrison, a member of the Assay Commission. 

Trust, guarantee, railroad, and mercantile companies have called upon him to serve 
them in their boards of directors, while the Eastern Dispensary has not called in vain for his 
services as trustee and willing contributor of his means to its support. In social life Mr. 
Cannon is an active participant, being a member of the Union League, Century Club, Sons 
of tin- Revolution, and the New England Society, and many other social ami art clubs, and is 
.1 member oi the Kane Masonic Lodge, 








v& j^: c^f/c^ 



? 



OF BIOGRAPHY 145 

aLLEN, ELISHA HUNT, late Chief Justice of the Hawaiian Islands. Envoy 
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of His Majesty the late King of tin- 
Hawaiian Islands at Washington, Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, formerly 
Member of Congress of the United States, was born at New Salem, Massachusetts, 
on the 28th day of January, 1804, and belonged to one of the most prominent families of the 
Connecticut river at that time. The first of his ancestors to come to this country was 
Edward Allen, a follower of Cromwell, who left England at the Restoration, came to tin- 
colonies, and settled upon the Connecticut river. 

Mr. Allen's father was the Hon. Samuel C. Allen, who was graduated from Dartmouth 
College in 1 794, and was an eminent lawyer in Western Massachusetts. After practising for 
some years he entered, in 1806, the Massachusetts Legislature, where he sat almost without 
break until 18 15. It was a time of especial importance and excitement in the history of the 
State. The Embargo Acts were passed by the General Government, destroying its commerce 
and causing great discontent. The War of 18 12 was declared. The Hartford Convention 
took place. Having become prominent in State politics, he was elected, in 181 7, to Congress, 
where he sat until 1829. He there sustained the character of a high-principled and philosophic 
statesman. Always a great student, his opinions were listened to with deference ; and he won 
the respect even of Southerners by the open and bold way in which at that early day he dared 
speak out his hostility to slavery. 

Mr. Allen's mother was a Miss Hunt, a member of the Northampton branch of that 
family : people of influence and prominence in the Connecticut River Valley in their day. 
Her father was the largest landowner on the Connecticut river, a member of the Legislature, 
and widely known for his generosity to the poor. His eldest brother was an active officer in 
the French and Indian Wars, and a member of the Committee of Safety ; and other members 
of the family took an active part in civil and military affairs in Colonial times, and also during 
the early days of the Republic. 

Mr. Allen began his education at a good New England academy. He tried business as 
clerk in a store when still a boy ; but not finding it to his taste, he went back to his studies, 
and at fifteen entered Williams College, from which he graduated second in his class, and was 
appointed to deliver the salutatory address. Having decided upon the profession of the law. 
he entered his father's office, and after studying the usual term of three years, he was admitted 
to the bar. He opened an office in Brattleborough, Vermont, where he lived for nearly two 
years. While there he married Miss Fessenden, the daughter of William Fessenden, a 
successful publisher. Some of his mercantile friends in Boston, who were doing a large 
business in Eastern Maine, advised him to go to Bangor for the practise of his profession. 
He followed their advice, and arrived there on the 9th of November, 182S. Bangor was a 
very prosperous town, and increasing in population and business rapidly. 

15 



i 4 6 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

Although Mr. Allen went there a stranger, he immediately entered upon a large and 
successful practise. He in a few years formed a partnership with Mr. Appleton, who was for 
many years Chief Justice of the State. 

He gave his exclusive attention to his profession, and intended to do so ; for his father, 
who had been in political life many years, advised him strongly to this course. But in 1835 
there was a severe contest for Representative from the city, and there was a disagreement in 
the Whig party as to the candidate ; and finally, as is often the case, they nominated Mr. Allen. 
He was not at the caucus, and when informed of his nomination he said he must decline, as it 
was not in accordance with his professional purposes. He was urged to accept for one year, 
as there was no time to fix on another candidate. Like most men who enter political life, he 
became interested in public affairs, and continued in the House of Representatives for five 
consecutive years. In 1838 he was elected Speaker of the House. The parties were divided 
about equally, and there were many questions of a partisan character often under discussion. 
But Mr. Allen, by his experience in legislation, good judgment, and fairness of mind, dis- 
charged the duties very acceptably, and had the entire approbation of the House. 

During Mr. Allen's membership of the Legislature, many very important questions arose 
in which the public were deeply interested. Among others, the question of corporations, 
banks, paper money, the control of the public money, education, private rights, and that still 
more important than any other to the State — the Northeastern Boundary. 

Mr. Allen advocated the advantages of corporations where the small capital of individuals 
could be concentrated and made to accomplish a great work, always taking care to secure the 
public against loss. He was of opinion that the business of the country could not be carried 
on exclusively with specie. The public convenience and general business demand a circulation 
of paper money redeemable in specie on demand. 

During several years the public mind was very much agitated on the subject of the 
currency. His political views were in accord with those of the Whig party of that period. 

The question of the Northeastern Boundary had become of great importance. The 
claim made by the State was recognized by the General Government. The land agent was 
directed, by an act of the Legislature, to proceed to the disputed territory and arrest all 
persons who were engaged in plundering its timber. When the agent was employed as 
ordered, he was arrested by a British force and carried to the capital of the Province, and 
held in duress. The sovereignty of the State had been assailed and violated in the person 
of the agent, and it became a duty to demand and enforce redress for this outrage upon the 
character and rights of the State. The General Government had undoubtedly been remiss 
in not pressing this question to a decision. It was in this state of affairs that Mr. Allen 
introduced the following resolve : — 

•'Resolved, That the honor and interest of this State demand that a sufficient military 
force be forthwith stationed on the Restook river, west of the boundary line of the State, as 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 147 

established by the Treaty of 1 783 ; and on the river St. John, if found practicable, at such points 
as may be best adapted to the object, to prevent further depredations on the public lands, 
and to protect and preserve the timber and other lumber already cut by trespassers, and to 
prevent its removal without the limits of the State." 

In support of which Mr. Allen said: — 

"Mr. Speaker: The importance and interest of this measure is not confined to ourselves. 
Our sister States have a deep interest in the course which we take on this vitally interesting 
question. The Union itself — the institutions of our Republic — will feel the influence of the 
measures we adopt. We are a peaceful people, accustomed to regard the quiet pursuits of 
life with far more interest and as much more congenial to the spirit of our institutions than 
commotions and collisions. We have 'borne and forborne.' Our patience has lasted so long 
that at times our character has suffered, being too insensible to a proper tone of National 
character. There is a time when forbearance ceases to be a virtue. There are times when 
your character will suffer by a too long submission to the dictates of others. Can our sister 
States say that we have acted impetuously? Years and years have passed away in fruitless 
efforts at negotiation. We had hoped, and we had a right to demand, long ere this, that the 
rights guaranteed to us by the Constitution of our blessed country would have been secured 
to us. Our hopes have been disappointed, and our resolutions have been inoperative on the 
Executive of the country when we had a constitutional right to be heard and regarded. 

" Mr. Speaker: I should not have introduced the first resolution, pregnant as it may be 
with high National consequences, had it not been admitted beyond cavil that the territory of 
Maine, as defined by the Treaty of 1783, had been violated without right and with impunity. 
I do not mean as admitted by our own people, with whom there is but one united sentiment, 
but by our sister States, and by the National sentiment itself. I do not deem it necessary, 
sir, to go into an argument to prove the correctness of the boundary line as we claim it. 1 
will, however, give the second article of the treaty, which is in these words, to wit: — 

" 'And that all disputes that may arise in future on the subject of the boundaries of the 
United States may be prevented, it is hereby agreed and declared that the following are and 
shall be their boundaries, viz., from the northwest angle of Nova Scotia, viz., that angle which 
is formed by a line drawn due north from the source of the St. Croix river to the highlands ; 
along the same highlands which divide those rivers that empty themselves into the river St. 
Lawrence, from those that fall into the Atlantic Ocean to the northwesternmost head of 
Connecticut river,' etc. 

"I refer you to the ancient British maps — to the commissions o\ the different 
Governors of Quebec in describing the boundaries of their jurisdiction, and they corroborate 
our interpretation of the treatydine. I refer you ti> the entire action of the British 
Government on the subject of our northeastern boundary, and you will not find a doubt ot the 
correctness of our title, ami their acquiescence in the defined boundary of the treaty until a 



148 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

short time prior to the Treaty of Ghent. From the date of the Treaty of 1781 to the 
negotiations at Ghent our title had been unquestioned ; hut the British Government had 
become convinced that a direct communication between the Canadas and the Provinces of 
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia was of immense consequence to them ; and hence they 
began to raise doubts about the construction of the treatydine. The pretext which they take 
to evade the terms of the treaty show to the common judgment of mankind, which 
spurns the arts of diplomacy, that their interpretation of the treaty is against the physical 
constitution of nature. One ground is, that no highlands exist corresponding to the terms of 
the treaty. Is there a Briton that doubts that there are highlands from one side of which 
streams flow into the St. Lawrence, and from the other side that they flow into the river St. 
John ? Supposing I should tell you that it was impracticable to run a line along the highlands 
that divide the waters which now run into the rivers Kennebec and Penobscot — would such 
a declaration be treated as worthy of serious refutation ? * :|: 

" In the communication of Sir John Harvey to the Governor he claims exclusive 
jurisdiction to the territory in dispute, and insists on the recall of our forces, which we sent 
with our land agent to suppress the timber spoliations. The issue is now made up. Your 
territory is claimed, your agent is imprisoned, and you are commanded to withdraw your force at 
the peril of meeting her Majesty's troops. What course, then, shall we take ? There is but 
one course that we can take ; and that is, to defend our rights at all hazards — peaceably if we 
can, forcibly it we must.' Ii our claim did not commend itself to the common justice of 
mankind ; it we were not on ground we deemed impregnable ; ii our rights were not as clear 
as the eternal principles of truth — I should say pause before you pass these resolves ; for 
when the step is once taken, you cannot retrace it without a sacrifice of your honor and an 
abandonment of your rights. I say more, sir ; if this were a new question, one that had not 
been presented to the consideration of our constituents, at least indirectly, — I should say, 
sleep on the resolve ; obtain instructions from your constituents ; suppress your holy 
indignation at the outrage on your sovereignty in the character oi your agent; ponder well 
its consequences. But is there a doubt that the message of your Governor will meet with a 
hearty response from the people of your State? Do not the chivalric sentiments it contains 
commend themselves to the settled purposes of our people on this question? I deem these 
resolves as nothing more than carrying out the settled convictions of the people — not hastily 
made, but matured by long deliberation, and a clear understanding of our rights. It is a 
question that has undergone more popular discussion than any other State or National 
subject ever has before. Public opinion is united upon it. The bast and the West are of one 
mind." 

"Can we tamely submit to be driven from our territory as guaranteed to us by an 
instrument as sacred as that of our Constitution? The Treaty of 1783 was the result of the 
high and noble struggle of the Revolution. It was a product of ' the times that tried men's 



OF BIOGRAPHY. I 49 

souls.' It was wrested from British domination by the energy and justice of the American 
cause. The exercise of the highest heroism and the loss of the best blood was a necessary 
preliminary to the formation of this treaty. Sacred, then, as the holy instrument is, what 
descendant of the Revolution is there that would not enroll himself with alacrity under the stars 
and stripes of his country, and defend its provisions, in humble imitation of the valor and 
devotedness of his fathers ? No man deprecates collision more than I do ; but I should 
deprecate infinitely more an insult to our national honor to pass unredressed, or to have a 
foreign power exercise jurisdiction within the State territory, whose boundaries are clearly fixed 
by the men who won it. I say, then, sir, carry out these resolves in their true and legitimate 
manner. Let us have no more delays, no more false moves, no more gasconade ; but let us 
carry the true spirit of the people we represent into practical operation. I know, sir, it is a 
responsibility of high moment. I feel it from the bottom of my heart. It is a step that no 
State in our Union has ever been called to take. These resolutions, if carried out, will sustain 
our rights, and secure us from further aggressions. It is the calm and deliberate conviction of 
my mind that the resolutions will accomplish your purpose." 

This resolve was passed unanimously. In obedience to the same the Governor 
ordered troops to the boundary, a division of which had reached there, and there was another 
brigade at the capital, ready to march. At this critical hour, General Scott, of the Army of 
the United States, arrived at the capital of the State, with instructions from the President. 

By special request Mr. Allen made an address of welcome to General Scott at the State 
House. 

General Scott was impressed with the importance of the question, and in a conversation 
with Mr. Allen he said that he admired the patriotic spirit of the people of Maine, " but," 
said he, "you are aware that the United States is never prepared to enter immediately into a 
war with a powerful nation. They require a short time for preparation. Still," said he, 
"should war follow, we shall probably be unsuccessful for the first six months, but in twelve 
months we can roll back the victories upon the enemy." Mr. Allen replied that while the 
assault upon the jurisdiction and property of the State compelled and fully justified the course 
taken, there was no disposition to involve the country in a war. But it was very important 
for the honor and interest of the State that the question should be settled. In the expecta- 
tion that the General Government would give immediate attention to the settlement of the 
question, the troops were very reluctantly withdrawn. General Scott conducted his mission 
with great good sense, and strengthened his claim to the title of the great pacificator. 

Perhaps there can be no better sketch of this session of the Legislature, so important to 
the State, than that given by Mr. Allen at its close, on a resolution of thanks to the Speaker, 
Mr. 1 lamlin. 1 le said : — 

"Mr. Speaker: An important, laborious, and exciting session of legislative duty we are 
now about to close. Acts of high concernment, as affecting the economical interests, character, 



ISO ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

and territorial sovereignty of our State, have been brought within the range of our inquiries 
and determinations. We have been called upon to consider an act on these measures, which 
affect the rights, the duties, and obligations of our citizens. Ouestions of high moment, and 
which have involved political considerations of a grave character, and which have deeply 
agitated the minds of the people of this country, have engaged our earnest attention. We 
have been required, too, by our position, by our duty as representatives for the maintenance 
of the integrity of our territory, by our duty to our State, and our common country, to take 
an important and highly responsible course in regard to the relations of this State and of the 
United States to a foreign country. 

"Our measures on this most highly interesting question have awakened a strong feeling 
throughout the country, and I trust the day is at hand when this border difficulty may be 
honorably and satisfactorily settled ; for it has a large influence on our resources and their 
development : our wealth and extent — yea more, our National character — is involved in the issue. 

"In the discussion of all these agitating subjects which has called forth the spirit of party, 
as well as the high and elevated sentiment of patriotic devotion, the Speaker of the House 
has presided over our deliberations with that courtesy and ability which, while it protects the 
freedom of debate, preserves the order which is necessary for the advancement of the public 
business. 

"This will be a memorable session in the history of our State, for it has been marked by 
the consideration of subjects deeply interesting to the Union, and which will be of interest in 
its history; and to have presided over this body, with so much satisfaction, amid the excite- 
ment of debate — feeling, as we have, a high sense of responsibility — bears full testimony of 
high qualifications. 

" We must now part, but memory will retain its impressions of friendship and regard 
which have been formed here. We have been engaged in business this session too deeply 
momentous soon to forget those who have participated in it. May the result of our anxious 
deliberations prove useful to our constituents, and may He who guides the destinies of nations 
watch with peculiar favor on this our beloved country." 

Mr. Allen was re elected to the Legislature in 1840, and in the same year was Whig 
candidate for Congress in a district heretofore decidedly Democratic. The Hon. Hannibal 
Hamlin was the Democratic candidate They had been members of the House of Represen- 
tatives of the State for five years, and leading men in debate in those high party times, but 
they always preserved friendly personal relations. 

In the campaign for Congress the district was very fully canvassed by them, and in the 
days just preceding the election some of the people desired them to discuss the questions of 
difference between the two parties — which was done to great general satisfaction. 

There was at this election a popular sentiment favorable to the Whig party, and Mr. 
Allen was elected. 






OF BIOGRAPHY. t 5 i 

He had, had thorough training in the Legislature of the State, and had been its Speaker, 
and although a young man, entered Congress well prepared for its duties. He was in the 
organization of the House placed on the Committee of Foreign Affairs, which was an 
exceeedingly important committee at the time, as the great question of the Northeastern 
Boundary was under consideration by the Executive and by Congress. 

Mr. Allen represented a district in which a large portion of the disputed territory was 
situated. His acquaintance with the subject gave his opinions great value. 1 Ie became very 
well acquainted with Lord Ashburton, who was appointed a Special Minister by Great Britain 
to settle this question, which threatened to involve the two countries in a war. As Mr. Allen 
represented the district of country which was in controversy, he became more particularly 
acquainted with his Lordship than he otherwise would have been. His Lordship said to him, 
" I want to settle the question in a way that will be satisfactory to the American people.'' 
Mr. Allen was much pleased with his cordial and frank manner ; and on one occasion he said : 
"I have been very much disappointed in not receiving some charts from New Brunswick." 
Mr. Allen replied that it would give him great pleasure to furnish him with such as he might 
wish. With thanks he said facetiously : " If I should take a Yankee chart, severe criticism 
would undoubtedly be made on me." 

A change of Administration had taken place. Mr. Webster, Secretary of State, addressed 
a note to the Governor of Maine, informing him " that Lord Ashburton, a Minister Plenipo- 
tentiary and Special from Great Britain, had arrived at the seat of government of the United 
States, and that, in regard to the boundary question, he had officially announced to the 
Government at Washington that he was authorized to treat for a conventional line, or 
line by agreement, on such terms and conditions, and with such mutual considerations and 
equivalents, as maybe thought just and equitable," and "inviting the co-operation of the 
Governments of Maine and Massachusetts in an endeavor to terminate this long-pending 
controversy." 

Mr. Webster adds, "that the importance of the subject, and a firm conviction in the mind 
of the President that the interests of both countries, as well as the interests of the two States 
more immediately concerned, require a prompt effort to bring the dispute to an end ;" and he 
therefore " expresses an earnest hope that the Governor will convene the Legislature of Maine, 
and submit the subject to its grave and candid deliberation." 

The Legislature was convened, and commissioners were appointed, " fully empowered to 
confer with the authorities thereof upon a conventional line, or line by agreement, with its 
terms, conditions, considerations, and equivalents, with an understanding that no such line 
should be agreed upon without the consent of such commissioners." 

During a discussion on the Army Bill, allusion was made to the reported agreement 
between the Ministers of the United States and Great Britain, for a settlement of tin North- 
eastern Boundary, and a gentleman from South Carolina, a Mr. Holmes, said. "Well, the 



i 5 2 ENCYCLOi\nni.\ 

negotiation has been going on," and "it is rumored that the result is especially palatable to 
Maine." Mr. Allen replied:— 

" [f it is, it is the first thing palatable which has ever been administered to her on this 
question. This seems to be;i different rumor from that announced in the 1 louse on Saturday. 
Whatever the result may 1"-, let me assure you, gentlemen, that no result can suit us so well 
as for the Government to run the line according to the Treaty of 1783, and there plant the 
American standard, Gentlemen seem to intimate as it we wished a sort ol traffic on this 
subject. Let me tell them that we have come here at thi ir solicitation, and against our wishes 
when acting independently of the necessary connection of other States, ami of the Union. We 
came up here with bleeding hearts, expecting- to make a sacrifice on the altar of our country 
for the common interest. It is a sacrifice to us, whatever may be the equivalent, to leave the 
old line of 1783, and take any other. We have been called upon by the country at large ami 
by many of the Legislatures of the Union to aid in the settlement. * 

"The course which she has taken has been out of regard to the Union, disregarding, 
with patriotic spirit, every consideration of self. No man from Maine, I will venture, asks a 
ratification; and if other members of the Union think she is too generous, or gets an equiva- 
lent which they deem too great, the decision is with them, not with us. And whatever it may 
be, let there be no misunderstanding; and I speak it in no spirit of bravado, but declare that 
we have done all that in honor we can do, and now demand of you to take military possession 
of that territory, and dislodge the British troops which now hold it." 

Mr. Allen in his remarks on the tariff of 1842 in the House of Representatives said : — 

"It is for the people to say which policy they will adopt — the American, which is a pro- 
tection to their agriculture, commerce, manufactures, and, above all, to their labor ; or the 
foreign, and particularly the British, which has always been hostile to the advancement of our 
great interests. The gentleman from the city of New York, Mr. McKeon, who was frank in 
his opinions, took the broad ground that we could not incidentally protect manufactures. 
'Europe,' said he, 'is the country whence, according to the nature of things, manufactures 
should come. They had capital and cheap labor, which we had not. In such things, indeed, 
as were the product mainly of labor-saving machinery, we might successfully compete with 
her ; but in the rest it was impossible.' If a stranger were to come into this hall and hear 
these advocates of free trade, and their constant appeals to such authorities as Sir Robert 
Peel, Mr. Hume, and other distinguished politicians of Great Britain, he would suppose that 
he was in the British House of Commons, listening to the strong advocates of their interests 
instead of our own. * * * * 

"The sea-girt isle is filled with manufactories, and they can be wrought with cheap labor ; 
and if they can give constant employment to their people, and gain the immense and exclusive 
advantage of machinery, and at the same time employment to their navigation, they will 
confine the rest of the world to pastoral pursuits, and control their destinies. Lord Brougham 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 153 

said, as early as 1S12, that 'America is an immense agricultural country, where land is 
plentiful and cheap. In such a country manufactures do not naturally thrive. Ever)- exertion, 
if matters are left to themselves, goes to other channels.' It perhaps would not have been 
so strange that prior to the last war such opinions should have been entertained, but one would 
have supposed that during that conflict the American people, both citizen and soldier, suffered 
enough from the want of blankets and other necessary manufactures, from the want of the 
munitions of war, as well as from the exorbitant price that was paid for what they did have, to 
make any one resist such colonial dependence, and that the great purposes of our Government 
could not have been carried out unless the agriculture, commerce and manufacturing interests 
were protected and encouraged ; and hence the distinction in the line of policy between the 
two parties is distinct and marked. The one looks upon this blessed country, rich in its soil, 
in its mines, in its water-power, in its navigation, in its varied production, and above all, in the 
patriotism, energy and industry of its people, as worthy of being developed and highly 
improved ; the other, inevitably, by its policy, forces the labor now engaged in manufactures 
and mechanics, and in many other pursuits intimately connected with them, to seek a support 
from agriculture. It is a most remarkable fact that the opponents of this bill and the advocates 
of the policy of Britain so entirely agree." 

Mr. Allen while in Congress took part in many important debates on the subject of tariff 
and bankruptcy. 

In 1846 he was elected again to the Legislature, and the same year removed to Boston. 
He represented the city in the Legislature in 1849, and was nominated for re-election, but 
declined, as he had received the appointment of Consul to the Hawaiian Islands, which was 
conferred upon him without his knowledge that his name had been entered for the office ; and 
he decided to accept it, thinking that residence for a few years in a tropical climate might be 
of advantage to him. 

HAWAIIAN CHAPTER IN THE LIFE OF HIS EXCELLENCY ELISHA II. ALLEN. 

During a period of more than thirty years, or a full generation, Mr. Allen was most 
intimately associated with the affairs of the Hawaiian Kingdom. 

1 lis arrival dates from the 1 ith of March, 1850 ; and while coming to officiate as United 
States Consul in Honolulu, he was also entrusted as diplomatic agent by the Government at 
Washington, with a treaty which had just been signed at Washington, on the 26th of 
December, 1849. This circumstance necessarily imparted to his advent in this kingdom 
a certain diplomatic prestige, which happily forshadowed that subsequent diplomatic career 
which was terminated only, after a long life of distinguished usefulness, when he died, at the 
President's New Year's reception in the White House at Washington, January 1, 1883. 

During a period of four years, from 1850 to 185.). he discharged with scrupulous fidelity 
his consular duties, holding an even balance, so that the United States consular service should 

16 



i S 4 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

not be compromised, while the large number of shipmasters and seamen should have no just 
cause of complaint. Persons unconnected with either party often looked on with admiration 
while witnessing the good judgment and official tact with which he adjusted the oft-perplexing 
affairs of the consulate at that time — one of great importance, owing to the very large fleet 
of whalers which made the Islands their basis of supplies and rendezvous. It was during his 
incumbency, in i S 5 2 , that occurred the famous sailors' riot, when from two to three thousand 
seamen from a hundred whaleships for two days held possession of the city of Honolulu, having 
burned the harbormaster's office and committed other unlawful acts. During this fearful 
demonstration he was called upon by the Governor of the Island of Oahu to render his assist- 
ance to quiet the rioters, and restore order to the city threatened with fire and misrule. 1 lis 
appeals to the tumultuous mob had the desired effect, and the writer of these lines can now most 
vividly recall the lithe form and agile step of the consul, as he made his eloquent and soul- 
stirring appeals to the angry rabble thronging the streets of the city of Honolulu. After eight 
and forty hours of the most fearful misrule, the sailors returned to their ships and order was 
restored. 

It was during his consulate that he was invited to visit the United States with the tender 

o 

to the Government at Washington of the cession of the Islands, under certain conditions and 
stipulations ; and because the measure did not succeed, it was not through any want of 
diplomatic tact and skill on his part, for it was then acknowledged that he discharged the 
delicate office of ambassador with great prudence and wisdom. 

Havino- closed his consular career, Mr. Allen made all his arrangements to return to his 

to ' *-> 

native land, and bid forever farewell to the Hawaiian Islands, when most unexpectedly he was 
invited by his Hawaiian Majesty, through his Foreign Minister, Mr. Wylie, to become Minister 
of Finance. Thus opened a new chapter in his life. After mature reflection, he accepted the 
portfolio, and hence became during the remainder of his life associated with governmental 
affairs of the Hawaiian Kingdom, first as Minister of Finance, which office he held until the 
death of Chief Justice Lee, whom he succeeded in 1857 as Chancellor of the Kingdom and 
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court — the highest office in the gift of the Crown. As Chan- 
cellor he was ex officio a member of the Cabinet, and his opinions always carried great weight 
in that body. As Chief Justice for a period of twenty years, Mr. Allen presided in the courts 
of this country with distinguished legal ability, such as to reflect the highest credit upon his 
knowledge as a jurist well versed in the intricacies of a wide range of legal subjects. His 
decisions cover all branches, as the court over which he presided was that of last resort from 
every tribunal in the kingdom. His decisions universally met the approval of those qualified 
to judge in matters of this nature. He was not only a well-read lawyer in the ordinary 
acceptation of that term, but he naturally possessed a mind of judicial cast, balanced by a 
hiab sense of moral obligation ; hence during all his consular, diplomatic, financial, and judicial 

to to *J * 

career the shadow of anything approaching unfairness or chicanery never rested upon his 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 



'55 



decisions. In both Honolulu and Washington, if Mr. Allen made a statement it was received 
and accepted as truthful and honest. It might be said of him as of Mr. Sumner, that he lived 
in Washington, but was ignorant of the existence of those unscrupulous lobbyists who 
approach public officials, whose ears are open to their plausible speeches. Such men are an 
honor to the countries they represent, and to humanity. This high and responsible position 
he held until his resignation to become Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary 
at Washington. 

It is pleasant to reflect that in private as well as public life, Mr. Allen's character was 
most pleasing and attractive. He was a person to whom those in trouble could resort for 
counsel and advice, when that could be given, and it would not intrench upon his character 
as a judge upon the bench. If it would, then his lips were closed. 

In referring to his sojourn in Honolulu, it is pleasant to recall his efforts in behalf of the 
community at large. In 1854 he was associated with many of the principal foreign residents 
and the seafaring community in erecting the Sailors' Home, and was chosen President of the 
"Honolulu Sailors' Home Society" in 1854, which office he discharged, not merely as an 
honorary affair, but was accustomed to meet the various committees and confer with them, in 
season and out of season. In all public debates relating to educational and philanthropic 
matters, he was most hearty and outspoken. His office as trustee of Oahu College he 
resigned only when he bade the Islands farewell. 

During the long period of his residence in Honolulu, he was an attendant upon the 
public worship of God at the Bethel Chapel, and was an annual subscriber for its support as 
a free chapel. 

In reviewing the life of this distinguished diplomat, judge and public official, it is pleasant 
to recall the remarkable and natural ease, urbanity and gracefulness which ever characterized 
his intercourse with his fellow-men — whether he met them in the consular office, the Supreme 
Court room, the public street, or the evening entertainment. He was by nature a refined 
and polished gentleman, and the true instincts of a gentleman were apparent, whether 
addressing a child, a lady, a diplomat, a jury, or his Majesty. When unoccupied with official 
duties, he was ever pleased to engage in general conversation upon public matters through- 
out the world; but by no topic could his mind be more easily arrested than the history of 
New England and the scenes of home-life among the descendants of the Puritans. 

The writer of this brief sketch of the late fudge Allen, as he was familiarly known, takes 

great satisfaction in paying his humble tribute to departed excellence. 

Samuel E. I )amon. 
Honolulu, September 7, 18S3. 

The last great work of Mr. Allen's life was the successful negotiation with the United 
States of the Hawaiian Reciprocity Treaty, by which the products of the Hawaiian Islands, 
mostly sugar and rice, are admitted into the United States free of duty, ^ti^ the manufactures 



i;6 ENCYCLOPEDIA 

and other products of the United States have like advantages at the Islands, and by which the 
latter are prevented from creating any lien upon any of them or any port or harbor in favor of 
any other power, or from giving any other country equal advantages. Mr. Allen had always 

favored the negotiation of such a treaty. England and France had both for short periods taken 
possession of the Islands, and coveted the prize. The English and French citizens would 
gladly have seen their own Hag waving over them. He felt that San Francisco was tin- 
natural market for the Islands' products, that the treaty would be of mutual advantage to the 
Islands and the United States commercially, and that from apolitical point of view the United 
States ought to have some lien upon the Islands, and not allow them to drift into the power 
of any other nation ; holding as they do the key to the North Pacific. 

Through his influence man)' missions were sent to the United States, on some of which 
he went himself. He negotiated a treaty with Henry L. Marcy, but it did not receive; the 
assent of Congress. In 1864 he negotiated another treaty with Mr. Seward, but the absorbing 
interest of the war caused it to fail. He also made another attempt in 1870, which was 
unsuccessful. Finally, in 187', he went again to Washington, though every one in Honolulu 
despaired of success, and a movement was on foot to see what could be done to negotiate a 
treaty with Australia, in order to make an outlet for Hawaiian sugars. After a most laborious 
winter, the treaty, which was negotiated with Mr. Hamilton Fish, passed the Senate by a vote 
of fifty-two to twelve ; but affecting, as it did, financial and tariff questions, it had to pass the 
House. 

After another laborious winter and spring, success crowned his efforts ; the treaty passed 
the House August, 1876, and was immediately signed by General Grant. 

Mr. Allen's predictions of the benefits that would arise from this treaty were more than 
realized, and reflect the utmost credit upon his foresight and breadth of view as a statesman. 
The trade between the Hawaiian Islands and the United States increased six-fold in as many 
years. A large American merchant marine does most of the shipping business, and American 
capital has sought investment there in large sums, to its own profit and to the advantage ol 
the Islands. The Hawaiian Government and the people have derived the greatest benefit from 
it. The wealth of the kingdom has increased immensely, and the population has also grown 
much in numbers, as immigrants have been numerous. 

Mr. Allen, as has been said, resigned his position as Chief Justice and Chancellor in 
1876. His wife's health was such that she could not live in the warm climate of Honolulu. 
Great were the expressions of regret at his withdrawal. A banquet was given him by the 
court and citizens. Resolutions of regard were tendered him by the bar, and sorrow anil 
regret was felt by every one at his departure. The Islands knew they were losing a tried 
and trusted friend. From that time until his death, he resided in Washington as Minister, 
attending to the interests of the Islands in the United States, which, of course, since the treaty, 
were numerous. On the appointment of Sir Edward Thornton, the British Minister at 






OF BIOGRAPHY. 157 

Washington, and Dean of the Diplomatic Corps, to the position of Ambassador to St. Peters- 
burg, Mr. Allen became Dean of that body. 

His death, on the 1st day of January, 1883, was sudden and painless. He was apparently 
in good health, and was in the best of spirits. With his young son, Frederick, his Secretary 
of Legation, he drove to the White House to be present at the diplomatic reception which 
always took place on New Year's 1 )ay, and at which the Ministers and their Legations appear 
in full court costume. As Dean of the Corps he took his place at the: head oi that bod)-, and 
led them in to be presented to the President, Mr. Arthur. After an hour's chat with different 
gentlemen and ladies, he went to the ante-room to put on his coat, to go to a breakfast given 
to the Corps by Mr. Frelinghuysen, Secretary of State. He sat down on a sofa, apparently 
a little tired. His head suddenly began to sink upon his chest, as if he were fainting. His 
son caught him in his arms, and laid him back upon the sofa. Medical attendance was called, 
but he neither spoke nor breathed again. Honored and respected, the mourners at his funeral 
were the President, the Cabinet, Senators and Representatives, Admirals and Generals ; his 
pall-bearers, his fellow-members of the Diplomatic Corps. 

Mr. Allen married in 1857, for his second wife, Miss Mary Harrod Hobbs, a daughter of 
Mr. Frederick Hobbs, of Bangor, Maine. By her he had two children, Frederick and Mary. 
The children of his first wife were Ellen, who was married to Henry Tiffany, Esq., of New 
York, and afterward to the Hon. C. C. Harris, Mr. Allen's successor as Chief Justice and 
Chancellor; William F. Allen, now Collector-General of the port of Honolulu; Elisha H. 
Allen, a merchant in New York city ; and Sarah Fessenden Allen, now the wife of I )r. William 
F. Wesselhoeft, of Boston. 




1 5 8 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 



m' CI PLOUGH, JOHN GRIFFITH, of Bennington, Vermont. The subject of this 
sketch was bom in Welsh Tract, near Newark, in the State of Delaware. His 
ancestry is of Scottish blood on the paternal and of Welsh extraction on the 
maternal side of the house. His early educational advantages were of meagre 
character; but such as they were, he diligently utilized them, with considerable credit to him- 
self. His father died when John G. was only three, and his mother when he was only seven 
years of age. But friends and relatives extended kindly and considerate care to the youth, 
whose pluck, persistence and unwearied industry placed him in command of the resources of 
a good education before he had attained his legal majority. His scholastic career ended in 
Delaware College, where he graduated, with the first honors of his class, before he had reached 
his twentieth year. 

Selecting the profession of law, Mr. McCullough began to prepare for its practise imme- 
diately after his graduation. Repairing to Philadelphia, he entered the law-office of St. 
George Tucker Campbell, who, for many years, was one of the brightest and most successful 
jury-lawyers at the Philadelphia bar, which has always been particularly distinguished for the 
learning and astuteness of its members. There he zealously prosecuted the necessary studies 
for the next three years, and also attended the Law School of the University of Pennsylvania. 
From the latter institution he received the diploma of LL. B., and was also admitted to the 
bar of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1859. 

Thus thoroughly equipped for the contests of the courts, the young lawyer found himself 
apparently doomed to exclusion from them by the declining condition of his health. Of 
naturally weak constitution, he was now seized by a grave pulmonary complaint, and was 
obliged to turn aside from the pleasing local prospects before him. The preservation of life 
itself demanded speedy change of climate and surroundings. Having tried and won, by his 
maiden effort, the first and only case entrusted to his management in Philadelphia, he sailed 
for California. The outlook was not promising. More dead than alive, the probabilities of 
the health, fortune and fame, of which he was in eager quest, were neither numerous nor 
flattering. 

When Mr. McCullough landed in San Francisco, he was unable to remain there because 
of the severity of the winds. He at once went forward to Sacramento. There he was 
admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of California. But physical necessity was yet upon 
him, and he again moved onward to the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevadas, in order to profit by 
the dry and exhilarating air of the mountains. When the stage stopped at the end of its long 
route, in Mariposa county, he disembarked, and stood face to face with the new and untried 
possibilities of the situation. This was in i860. 




M^cc^SuJ^/^ 



OF BIOGRAPHY. , S9 

Opening an office for the transaction of business, he rapidly acquired a full share of legal 
practise. The fame of a patriot rather than that of a legist was, however, what awaited him 
in his new and unaccustomed home. Before he had established any close and extended 
acquaintance with the people, he was unwittingly swept into the thickest of the forensic fight 
for the preservation of the National Union. The outer currents of the eddying war storm 
that had gathered over the Cotton States and that threatened destruction and death to all who 
stood in its pathway, made themselves felt on the remote coasts of the Pacific. 

There in Southern California, the Secessionist from Alabama lived in close proximity to 
the Unionist from Vermont. It was by no means certain that the State would not become 
the theatre of internecine war. The arrival of General Sumner on the scene was remarkably 
opportune. By a coup d'etat he superseded Albert Sidney Johnston in command of Fort Alcatraz, 
and thus frustrated the scheme of the Southern sympathizers to separate California from the 
Union. He found a ready and efficient supporter in young McCullough, whose heart was too 
hot, intellect too swift, and eloquence too effective, to permit him to be an inactive spectator 
of passing occurrences. Like William of Orange, his enthusiasm for right and liberty lifted 
him above and outside of the limitations of physical infirmity. Stranger as he was, he 
ascended the stump, and from that popular rostrum did splendid service for American nation- 
ality and freedom. Although barely qualified, according to local law, he received the nomination 
for the General Assembly. A coalition of the Republicans and Douglas Democrats triumph- 
antly elected him, despite the efforts of Secessionism, and sent him to Sacramento in 1S61. 

In the Legislature of California, Mr. McCullough so manfully and successfully advocated 
the cause of the Union, that in 1862 his constituents returned him to the Senate. The 
Senatorial district was large, composed of several counties, and had for many years previously 
been under the control of Democrats. The canvas was exhaustive and bitter, and its methods 
were no less characteristic of the time and locality. In one of the precincts not a Rejlhblican 
could be found. Not only that, but every voter was so virulent in his animosity to the 
Government of the United States that he was not wholly satisfied with the regular Southern 
Democratic ticket. Their excitement was high. Help from such electors was seemingly 
among the impossibilities. But a shrewd Republican saw how that special hostility might be 
turned to good account. A young Virginian, of easy conscience, keen wits, and Republican 
sympathies, entered this singular precinct on the dawn of election day, and by his conviviality 
and Hotspur language so won the confidence of the sons of chivalry as to persuade them, 
before the polls opened, to emphasize their detestation of the entire "Yankee Government," by 
voting for a despised and disqualified negro barber, livery vote was cast lor die involuntary 
candidate, and was of course thrown away. Not thrown away after all, so far as the best 
interests of the Commonwealth were concerned ; for every such vote was a direct aid to the 
choice of the patriot McCullough. The adventurous Virginian was never known to enter 
that precinct again. 



t 6o ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

Senator McCullough displayed such legal acumen and such judicious vigor in shaping 
legislation, that, notwithstanding the fewness of his years and the recency of his citizenship, 
he was nominated in the following year by the' Republican State Convention for tin- office of 
Attorney-General, and was elected at the polls by an overwhelming majority. This office he 
continued to hold for the next four years, in which he resided at Sacramento. Much important 
litigation in which the Commonwealth was interested thus fell to his management, and was so 
skillfully and satisfactorily conducted that he was again nominated by his party in 1S67. But 
popular sentiment had veered. In tin- election his name stood at the head of his ticket 
in the reception of general favor, but nevertheless both himself and co-aspirants failed of 
success. 

After the close of his official career General McCullough settled in San Francisco, and 
there established a law firm of which he was the head. From the commencement of its 
operations, and throughout the more than five years of his residence in that city, he was 
a prominent member of the bar, which included men of the keenest and most cultured 
intellect from every State of the Union. His practise was highly remunerative ; and his 
reputation with court, counsel, and client that of a practitioner who is scrupulously precise in 
statement and in action, and who is always governed by the nicest sense of professional honor. 
In 1871 he visited the Eastern States and Europe, ami returned in company with a gifted and 
accomplished wife, whom he had espoused in Vermont. The latter auspicious connection was 
the controlling cause, aided by the fact that he had already acquired an ample fortune, of his 
permanent removal to Vermont in 1873. 

In the full prime of manhood, and endowed with a restless, energetic, and self-controlled 
temperament, General McCullough could not content himself with the enjoyment of what he 
had so nobly and honorably won. Although he has not again taken up exclusively legal 
labors, he has distinguished himself in commercial, banking, and railroad affairs. For eight 
years he was vice-president and manager, in great measure, of the Panama Railroad Company. 
He was the president and directing genius of that corporation from 1883 to 1888, having 
consented to hold such relations at the urgent solicitation of M. De Lesseps and its French 
owners. He is also president of the First National Bank of North Bennington, president 
of the Bennington and Rutland Railway Company, director of several banking and other 
institutions in Vermont and New York, a leading director of the New York, Lake Erie and 
Western Railroad Company, and chairman of its Executive Committee since 1884, and 
president of the Chicago and Erie Railroad Company since its reorganization in 1890. 
Belonging to the Bennington Battle Monument Association, he was an active member ol the 
committee charged with tin: selection of a design for the fitting memorial of that celebrated 
engagement, which, though insignificant in respect of the numbers engaged, was decisive and 
fir reaching in its beneficent influence on the cause of American Independence. He is trustee 
of the Soldiers' Home of Vermont. 



OF BIOGRAPHY. x ( n 

Politics as an applied science have never failed to enlist the wannest sympathies of 
General McCullough. Whether on the Pacific or on the Atlantic slope of the continent, he 
has exhibited the liveliest interest in all the public questions of the day. No political campaign 
since 1S60 has passed away without having heard his voice, ringing out in no uncertain tones, 
in advocacy of the principles and men that challenged his support. Under ordinary conditions, 
the better and more fruitful portion of life is still before him. His beautiful home in Southern 
Vermont is the abode of elegant and cordial hospitality, and the centre whence radiates the 
manifold energies which class him with the ablest and most influential citizens of the Green 
Mountain State. 

John Griffith McCullough was married in 1S71 to Eliza H., eldest daughter of Trenor 
W. Park, and grand-daughter of ex-Governor Hiland Hall. They have four children, Hall 
Park, Elizabeth Laura, Ella Sarah, and Esther Morgan McCullough. 




•7 



i6- ENCYCLOPAEDIA 



^"V PRAGUE, NATHAN TURNER, of Brandon, Vermont. Born in Mount Holly, 
\^^^^ Rutland count)-, Vermont, on the 22(1 of June, 1S2S. The Sprague family is of 
«/^> — J that sturdy, forceful English stock, which has not only multiplied rapidly in its 
native scats, hut has established new and powerful nationalities in different parts 
of the world. Ralph, Richard and William Sprague, the original immigrants, were sons of 
Edward Sprague, a resident of Upway, Dorsetshire, England. These enterprising pioneers 
left their native country in 1629, landed at Salem, and removed in the Same summer to 
Charlestown, Massachusetts. In 1629 William Sprague migrated to Hingham in company 
with Anthony Eames, his father-in-law, and received grants of land in that town during the 
following year. He was, by Millicent his wife, the father of a large family of children. 
Anthony, one of the number, was baptized at Charlestown on the 23d of May, 1636; and was 
married in 1664, to Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Bartlett, of Plymouth. Numerous offspring 
blessed their union, fosiah, one of the sons, was born in Hingham, April 2^, 1680. He 
married Elizabeth Wilder on the 17th of May, 1705; and died at Hingham, on the 23d of 
March, 1760. Of the six or more children who constituted his immediate descendants, one, 
named Benjamin, was born at Hingham, November 22, 1707. He married Deborah Cothell, 
December 18, 1735, and became the father of several children, all of whom were born in 
Hingham. Asher, one of the number, born June 12, 1743, removed to Scituate, where he 
reared a large family, and where he died in 1S24. Nathan Sprague, his eldest son, removed 
early in life to Pembroke. There he married Celia Josselyn, a resident of the town, on the 
31st of March, 1785, and by her had four children. 

Nathan Turner, eldest son of Nathan and Celia (Josselyn) Sprague, was born at Pomfret, 
Massachusetts, January 23, 1786. At the age of thirteen he removed with his parents to 
Vermont; attained maturity amid the surroundings of a new country, and began business on 
his own account at Mount Holly, in 1808. His activities assumed diversified forms. For a 
quarter of a century he was a hading merchant in tin- village ; for twelve years he conducted 
a hostelry in the same place, and was simultaneously engaged in extensive agricultural 
pursuits. Naturally and appropriately he gravitated toward official position, and was placed 
at different times, by the votes of his fellow-citizens, in the incumbency of all the local town 
offices. These he filled with acceptance and credit. For fourteen years he represented the 
inhabitants of the town in the State Legislature. No less than eight of these years were of 
continuous service. Whether in politics or in business, he was equally and happily successful. 
In 1833, the honored possessor of an ample fortune, amassed by honest and skillful industry, 
he settled in Brandon. There he was identified at once with the wealthiest and most influential 
inhabitants. Elected to the directorate of the old Brandon Bank, and subsequently chosen to 
the presidency of the First National Bank, he served efficiently in the latter position until he 






OF BIOGRAPHY. 163 

was succeeded by his son, N. T. Sprague, Jr. He also represented the citizens of Brandon 
in the Legislature for five years. Nineteen years of legislative experience aided in making 

him one of the wisest politicians in a Commonwealth noted for the keen intelligence and 
practical shrewdness of its people, For several years he officiated as one of the Assistant 
Judges of Rutland county. What is somewhat singular in the experience of an American 
citizen, he voted no less than eighteen times in presidential elections. Mr. Sprague was 
married on the 11th of October, 181 2, to Susan Button, by whom he was the father of five 
children. He died on the 9th of December, 1876. 

Nathan Turner Sprague, Jr., son of Nathan T. and Susan (Button) Sprague, removed to 
Brandon with his parents, when at or near the age of five years. Thenceforward the years 
of immaturity flowed on, unmarked by events characteristically dissimilar from those 
appertaining to the ordinary lot of rural youth. He himself was distinguished by wonderfully 
keen perceptions of men and things, by quickness at apt repartee, love of reading, natural 
leadership, vivacity, and love of fun. Six years were spent in school at Brandon Seminary. 
The asje of eighteen found him en<ra<jed in mercantile business on his own account — 
managing, and successfully managing, a large country store. In 1851 he relinquished 
commercial pursuits, and in 1852 settled in Wallingford and entered upon agriculture. 
There he remained until 1856, when he returned to Brandon, which has since been his 
home. 

During the decade following Mr. Sprague's return to Brandon he was occupied in 
farming, and in other matters directly or incidentally related to it. The breeding, purchase, 
and sale of thoroughbred horses, cattle, merino sheep, etc., occupied much of his time and 
attention. But his business activities took still wider range. He loaned money, and assisted 
his father in the management of his large estate. Since 1864 financial and manufacturing 
enterprises have mainly engrossed his energies. Still he has retained all his enthusiastic 
interest in the cultivation of the soil, and is yet one of the most prominent agriculturalists in 
Vermont. Stock-breeding particularly is the subject of scientific study. Merino sheep, 
Ayrshire and Jersey cattle, receive his special care. Cattle-foods are also matters of 
investigation and experiment. Ensilage has received close practical examination. His silo 
is one of the best in the United States. Improved methods of agriculture are no less closely 
scanned and applied. From personal experience and observation he is admirably qualified to 
express a judicious opinion about nearly all, it not all of them. 

The activities of Mr. Sprague have for many years been largely interested in the 
foundations of social prosperity. The field is the chief source of wealth, but he has also 
been exceedingly active in the pursuits which govern the distribution and uses ot wealth. In 
1S64, in association with his fatherand other gentlemen, he organized the First National Bank 
of Brandon. ( >f that institution Judge Sprague was the first president, and Colonel Sprague 
the first vice-president. Succeeding his father in the presidency, he yet holds that position. 



1 64 ENCYCLOPEDIA 

Remarkable fiscal success has attended his able management. Few, if any, banks in the State 
have been more prosperous. In twenty eight years it has paid #41 2,500 in dividends, on a capital 
of $150,000, and has since added $126,000 to its surplus. Other financial establishments have 
felt the fostering power of his genius. In 1870,111 company with General H. H. Baxter and 
others, he organized the Baxter .National Hank at Rutland. From that date until 1882 he was 
one of its prominent directors. His watchfulness and wisdom have contributed in no small 
degree to its gratifying success, and to its ownership of one of the finest bank buildings in 
New England. 

Colonel Sprague was elected President of the Brandon Manufacturing Company in 1867. 
This corporation afterward attained universal reputation under the title which it still bears, 
that of the Howe Scale Company. At the epoch of his accession to the head of affairs, the 
manufacture was in its infancy. The corporation had a capital of $50,000, and employed 
between forty and fifty operatives. He at once infused new life and energy into the body, 
and initiated a career of singular prosperity. It speedily rose to the rank of one of the 
largest manufactories in Vermont, achieved universal renown, and found a market for its pro- 
ductions in all parts of the civilized world. When he retired from active management in 1876, 
the capital of the company had increased to $250,000, and the number of its employees to 
two hundred and fifty. 

Politics, finance and business are inseparably allied under the protection of free institu- 
tions. The latter logically leads the second, and that in turn introduces equally with the 
second to the first. In harmony with this normal order, Colonel Sprague has several times 
been deputed by the citizens of Brandon to represent them in the State Legislature, in which 
he served with conspicuous efficiency, both as chairman of the Committee on Ways and 
Means, and as chairman of the Committee on the Reform School. The latter is the out- 
growth of the study of sociology, a science closely akin to that of politics. In 1872 he was 
elected State Senator from Rutland county, and was fittingly appointed chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Finance. Here his long acquaintance with fiscal science came into beneficent 
operation. Other and higher honors of administrative kind have repeatedly sought his 
acceptance. But for his positive ami persistent declinature, his friends would long since have 
nominated him as their candidate for the chief magistracy of the State. 

That Colonel Sprague should have been elevated to the Governorship is apparent in 
view ol his marked and liberal public spirit. This, in common with other qualifications, vindi- 
cates the wisdom of those who naturally desired and still desire it. The Vermont State 
Building at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia was one of the finest structures of its 
class erected upon the grounds. It owed existence to the liberality and local patriotism of 
Colonel Sprague. The State Legislature had failed to make an appropriation for such an 
edifice, and the Governor had no constitutional power to authorize its construction. In this 
dilemma Colonel Sprague promptly stepped forward, provided the building, and defrayed the 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 165 

entire expense from his own resources. He had the singular honor of being the only citizen 
who did such a service to his State. Partial reiml ursement was offered to him by the Legis- 
lature of Vermont in its next session. But feeling the incongruity of receiving such partial 
repayment for what he had intended to be a donation, he bestowed the amount tendered upon 
his own town for the erection of a library building. The officers of the corporation formally 
accepted his munificent gift, returned grateful resolutions of thankfulness, and appropriately 
named the new institution the Sprague Centennial Library. Commodious and ornamental, it 
not only serves the purposes of a library, but also, by means of the hall it contains, which 
seats 250 persons, accommodates the Farmers' and Mechanics' Club, which is the principal 
social organization of the town. His local self-respect, love of his State, care for its worthy 
representation in the aggregation of world art-products, and wise, large-hearted beneficence, 
are thus self-perpetuating, and will be vastly serviceable to coming generations. The Sprague 
Centennial Library is also a lasting monument of his munificence and public spirit. 

Far more widely than limits of town or State has Colonel Sprague made his unusual 
power for good felt by the American people. He was one of the influential members of the 
convention that organized the American Agricultural Association. From that time to the 
present he has been one of its most constant, active and liberal friends. Neither time nor 
means has been spared to assure its success. Dark and unpromising as its prospects at times 
seemed to be, his own hopeful confidence has never faltered, nor his zeal relaxed in the 
endeavor to make it a productive social element in the Republic. Observation of nature in 
his favorite pursuit has impressed the lesson that light follows darkness, stability succeeds 
storms, and harvest the patient expectation of the sower. The analogies of the physical and 
social worlds are both numerous and close. In 1881 he was chosen president of the Association, 
and is still the head and front ot an organization representing the entire industrial and 
agricultural interest of the nation, having been elected three times (1885) ; a better selection 
could not have been made. Intelligent sympathy with farmers, sincere love of farming, and 
thorough practical acquaintance with it in all its ramifications, together with his business, 
financial and legislative knowledge eminently qualify him for the incumbency of his highly 
honorable and influential office. In 1882 and '83 he received the merited compliment of 
re-election. He has also been the president of the Vermont Merino Sheep-breeders' 
Association for four years, and was greatly instrumental in making it a live and prosperous 
organization. The Brandon Farmers' and Mechanics' Club enjoyed his presidency for nine 
years, and owes much of its pleasurable usefulness to his supervision. 

Colonel Sprague is one of that large class of American citizens whose powers no "pent- 
up Utica" confines. In addition to numerous and varied interests in Vermont, he is the 
proprietor of much real estate in the city of Brooklyn, New York, and has done much to 
promote the development of that part of it in which his property is situated. In the earlier 
part of the year [883 he prominently assisted in the establishment of the Sprague National 



1 66 /iXCYCLOP.EDIA 

Bank of Brooklyn, which began business with a capital of $200,000, at the corner of Fourth 
and Atlantic avenues, near the Long Island railroad depot. N. T. Sprague was elected 
president, Wm. Harkness, vice-president, and H. C. Copeland, cashier. A large body of 
well known and first-class business men were selected as directors. The prominent 
stockholders were also men of the same calibre. 

Through the kindness of its friends and customers this bank was able, in the first 
eighteen months of its existence, to pay nine per cent, in dividends to its stockholders, and six 
per cent, to the surplus account Besides this it paid $3,750 in premiums on bonds — making 
about $35,000 as the net profits for the period named. Buying and selling foreign exchange, 
and constantly keeping on hand for sale the very best and safest seven per cent, investment 
securities that the market affords, it continues to prosecute its business with every facility that 
any bank in New York or elsewhere can offer to its customers. Referring to the 
unprecedented success of this financial institution, the oldest bank president of Brooklyn says 
that "such results never were accomplished in the first eighteen months of its existence by 
any bank in this city." This bank is now entering on its ninth year of prosperous business, 
with its capital as it started; surplus and undivided profits of $127,958.72. and deposits 
amounting to about a round $1,000,000. The present officers are : N. T. Sprague, president ; 
Win. Harkness, vice president ; and F. L. Brown, cashier. With an able body of directors, 
and Colonel Sprague as its active head, its prospects for the future are as brilliant and 
flattering as its singular achievements in the past. 

To Colonel N. T. Sprague, more than any one else, is Brooklyn indebted, that it became 
a city of reserve and deposit for National banks from ever}* State in the Union, thus placing 
that city in that respect on a par with any city in America. 

In the Brooklyn Eagle, July 26, 1890, we find the following: "Papers have recently been 
received from E. S. Lacey, Controller of the Currency, announcing the fact that Brooklyn has 
been added to the list of cities of redemption for National Banks. This has been secured 
mainly through the? efforts of Colonel N. T. Sprague, of the Sprague National Bank, who is 
consequently overjoyed at the new financial activity and vigor which the step promises to 
bring. The other officials who have taken part in the move are President Powell, of the 
National City Bank; President Jenkins, of the First National Bank, and President Loughran, 
of the Manufacturers' National Bank. These institutions form the required three-fourths of 
National Banks of the city, the number required to secure the benefits of the law. 

The first step toward securing this new financial improvement was started by Colonel 
Sprague, and on March 30th, the regular application signed by the four National Banks above 
mentioned was forwarded to the controller. In this application it was asked that according 
to law the city of Brooklyn be made a central reserve city in which one-half of the lawful 
money reserve of the National banks located in other reserve cities might be deposited. 
After proper requirements were fulfilled the final official notification was given by the 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 167 

controller on July 14th, and Brooklyn may now lift her head from the line of a country 
village, at least in a banking way, and take rank with New York or any of the other reserve 
cities of the country. 

Under this new regime many banks in the South and West, who formerly kept their 
reserves in New York, in accordance with the law requiring the reserves to be kept in a city 
of reserve, and their active accounts kept with Brooklyn banks, will now be able to keep th 
accounts and reserves in Brooklyn, thereby making a vast increase in the line of deposits in 
the home banks. 

The law requires that a city must have a population of over 50,000 to become a reserve 
city, and as Brooklyn has long outstripped that figure, it has been only apathy upon her part 
that the present step was not taken before. The circulation of a National Bank is founded 
on the amount of National Bonds deposited with the United States Treasurer, and upon th.a 
basis the circulation is given by the controller. All banks termed country banks are required 
to reserve 15 per cent, of that amount upon deposit as a reserve fund ; but when such a bank 
becomes a reserve institution this percentage is increased to 25. 

Colonel Sprague, in speaking of the new state of things brought about by the change, 
said this morning: "Yes, at last we have managed to place our banking institutions upon the 
same footing as any in the country. Heretofore, as we were not reserve banks, the out-of- 
town institutions all over the country, while doing business with Brooklyn banks, were obliged 
to keep their reserve funds in New York, and for that reason we have lost the handling and 
use of an immense amount of capital which would otherwise have come to us. As to the 
benefit which would be derived by our home business, from this new step, it is hardly to be 
calculated. It may not be apparent all at once, but by degrees these reserve funds from banks 
all over the country will come to us and the benefit will accrue to the business of Brooklyn. 
This amount may run anywhere from $10,000,000 to $40,000,000, and it is easy to Ifee that 
such an amount of capital will boost our home business in no small way. 

"Our banks have lost a good deal of business from Western banks, lor they did not 
want to deposit with us and keep their reserve with another bank in New York. Nearly all 
Western banks require clearing through Kastern institutions, and now we can hope to gel a 
goodly share of this business in competition with New York. It is easier to get to our banks 
from Wall street than it is from up-town in New York, and we nut)- yet get a goodly share of 
the bankin<>' business of the street. We managed to yet four-fifths of the national banks hen- 
to sign the original application, but the balance will be alike benefited, as the law will affect 
all alike." 

The colonel then went on to say that the reserve law would greatl) facilitate Brooklyn's 
banking business all over the country, and drafts drawn upon her banks would be as good as 
cash in any locality. To show how far the city has been behind in this vital point ol financial 
standing, the following list of the reserve cities of the United States, together with their 



1 68 I.N CYCLOPAEDIA 

population was given : New York, 1,565,000; Philadelphia, 1,136,647; Chicago, 1,100,000; 
St. Louis, 450,000; Boston, 390,597; Baltimore, 332,190 ; Cincinnati, 315,000 ; Cleveland, 
260,000; New Orleans, 250,000; San Francisco, 300,000; Pittsburgh, 240,000; Detroit, 
230,000; Louisville, 200,000 ; Milwaukee, 200,000; Kansas City, 197,439; Washington, 
187,928; Albany, 102,300; Omaha, 101,000; and St. Joseph, 80,000. 

During certain portions of the year Colonel Sprague is almost as much a resident of 
New York as of Vermont. Prosperity springs up under the touch of his hand. Failure he 
knows as a word, but not as a fact. Good luck and success he believes in — not as the 
creations of chance, but as the results of good sense, persistent energy, and true morality. 
Every undertaking witli which he is identified, every organization with which In- has been 
associated, has prospered beyond the hopes of the sanguine ; but yet only as he, knowing the 
effects of certain causes under ascertained conditions, had anticipated. Progressive in his 
movements while conservative in his principles, endowed with rare sagacity and almost 
unerring judgment in mercantile affairs, and withal a thoroughly complete business man, the 
unusual success of Colonel Sprague is the natural and worthy outcome of his activities. He is, 
moreover, a man of the strictest integrity, and of the largest sympathy with all that connects 
itself with the best good of the individual and of the community. 

Nathan Turner Sprague, Jr., was married on the 1st of November, 1849, to Minerva M. 
Hull, of Wallingford, Vermont. She died in September, 1856. In October, 1857, Mr. 
Sprague married Melinda J. Evans, of Springfield, Ohio. She died January 28, 1885. The 
issues by these marriages were a daughter by the first, and a son by the second. 

On the 14th of October, 1886, Colonel Sprague was united by marriage to Miss 
Elizabeth Harrison, of Brooklyn, New York. Lovely and beloved, a woman who through 
lite will shower sunshine on all around her. 






V 



9fL 




OF BIOGRAPHY. 169 



v^\ODD, AMZI, was born in what is now the township of Montclair, then part of the 

I township of Bloomfield, Essex county, New Jersey, March 2, 1S23. I lis lather, 

"^^— ^ Joseph S. Dodd, was for more than thirty years a physician there, of large practise, 

noted for his thoughtful interest in his patients and the successful methods of tn .it 

ment. He was fond of academic studies, a good Latinist and mathematician. The mother of 

Am/i was Maria, daughter of Rev. Stephen Grover, for fifty years pastor of the Presbyterian 

Church in Caldwell, New Jersey. Joseph S. Dodd was the son of General John Dodd, who 

was the lineal descendant of Daniel Dodd, who was born in England and died in Newark, 

New Jersey, in 1665. 

Amzi, the second son of Joseph S., had his early schooling in the Bloomfield Academy, 
entered Princeton College Sophomore Class, half advanced, in the spring of 1839, and was 
graduated with the highest honor, pronouncing the Latin Salutatory at Commencement in 
September, 1841. The class was a large one, and many of its members have been distinguished 
in life. Francis P. Blair, John T. Nixon, John T. Duffield, Theodore L. Cuyler, Richard Wilde 
Walker, Caleb C. Baldwin, Edward W. Scudder and others have been eminent and useful 
men. 

The subject of this sketch was engaged in teaching for four years after graduation, at the 
same time pursuing the study of law and its related subjects. While not engaged as a teacher 
he was part of the time in the law office of Miller & Whelpley, in Morristown, New Jersey. 
He was licensed as an attorney in January, 1848 ; soon after was connected in legal practise 
with Mr. Frelinghuysen, the late Secretary of State, at that time a leading lawyer of large 
business of an office kind and in the courts. In the spring ot 1850 he was chosen Clerk of 
the Common Council of Newark, and opening a law office began practise alone. He soon 
acquired reputation and business, and in 1853 gave up the clerkship of the Council. Early 
connection with important corporate and fiduciary affairs led him largely into legal departments 
calling for judicial, rather than forensic, powers. 1 Ie took part in litigated cases in court, but 
was less inclined to jury trials than to arguments to the Court, where his intellect and temper- 
ament found a more congenial field. He delivered occasional public addresses before 
Lyceums; pronounced in 1851 the oration in Newark at a general city civic celebration ol tin 
Fourth of July ; later a literary address at Commencement in Princeton and a discourse before 
the Essex County Bible Society, of which he was the president. He was also a speaker in 
political assemblies, chielly during the heated canvasses of 1N56 and i860. He was one ol the 
early promoters of the Republican party, presiding and speaking at the first mass meeting in 
Newark in the early summer of [856, when George William Curtis. Henry I. Raymond and 
the venerable ex-Chief Justice Homblower were speakers. The breaking up of the old \\ hig 
party that summer into the American ami Republican panics made the election of a 1 leinoeratu 

18 



170 



ENCYCLOPAEDIA 



Congressman assured. Mr. Dodd, however, the more willingly consented to go on the 
Republican ticket for Congress and received an enthusiastic support. I Ie gave up his time to 
the discussion of the exciting questions of the hour in the school-houses and elsewhere 
throughout his district, identifying himself with the strongest opposition to the extension of 
slavery in the Territories. 

Mr. Dodd was married in 1852 to Jane, oldest daughter of William Frame, and resided 
in Newark till the summer of i860, when he removed to Bloomfield where he has since lived. 
He served one term from that district in the Assembly of the State Legislature in the 
session of 1863, declining to serve a second term. In the same year he was appointed 
Mathematician of the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company to succeed Joseph P. Bradley, 
late Justice of the United States Supreme Court, who resigned. 

In 1S71 the office of Vice-Chancellor was created by the New Jersey Legislature, to meet 
the increasing equity business, and Mr. Dodd was nominated by Chancellor Zabriskie, and 
appointed by Governor Randolph to the new office. In the next year he was nominated by 
Governor Parker and appointed by the Senate one of the special judges of the Court of 
Errors and Appeals. In 1878 he was again nominated by Governor McClellan and 
reappointed for the same place, holding it till the spring of 1882, when he resigned. In 
May, 1875, he resigned the Vice-Chancellorship. In the same year was appointed a member 
of the Riparian Commission by the nomination of Governor Bedle, and held that position till 
April, 1887. In 1876 he was appointed by the Supreme Court one of the Managers of the 
New Jersey Soldiers' Home, and has been engaged in that service, a gratuitous one, ever 
since. 

In April, 1881, he again took the office of Vice-Chancellor at the request of Chancellor 
Runyon, resigning it early in 1882, to become the President of the Mutual Benefit Life 
Insurance Company, a position he now holds. It is a noticeable circumstance that though of 
pronounced Republican political views the public offices he has held have been by 
appointments of Democratic Administrations, and it is to be added unsolicited on his part. 

His written opinions as Vice-Chancellor and as a judge of the court of last resort are 
contained in the Equity Reports from 7th C. E. Green to 7th Stewart, inclusive, with the 
exception of a few on the law side of the Court of Errors and Appeals contained in Vroom's 
Reports for the same period. 

Mr. Dodd began his professional life when the city of Newark, in which the whole of 
that lite has been spent, was less than one-fourth of its present size and when the great 
institution over which he now presides had been but lately founded. Those who knew him 
then, as did the writer of this sketch, and have followed the steps of his career, will observe 
with satisfaction how completely his mental and moral qualities have found their proper field 
for action and growth. There was nothing adventitious in any stage of his progress. He 
never sought office, nor employed any of the arts which have become so common, to secure 



OF BIOGRAPHY. i 7 i 

personal advancement. From the first he was recognized as a man of singular probity and 
elevation of character, and fine intellectual culture and attainments. As he became betti i 
known in the earlier years of his professional labors it was soon understood that his was 
eminently a judicial mind ; that he possessed not only strong reasoning powers, but also the 
calm discrimination, the sobriety of judgment, the keen insight into character and motive, and 
the knowledge of public affairs, which are so valuable and so much appreciated in a busy and 
growing community like that in which his life has been passed. 

Accordingly he was constantly sought for to fulfill duties connected with public and 
corporate trusts, especially requiring such qualities, and to act as counsel or arbitrator in 
important controversies. Although he was an ardent Republican, and was persuaded to 
become a candidate for Congress and to serve a term in the Legislature, yet the career of the 
politician, even in the best sense of the much-abused word, was not in harmony with his tastes 
or his cast of mind. His proper sphere of duty was that of the thinker, the judge and the 
executive manager of important trusts, and in these fields he has labored with eminent suc- 
cess and usefulness. 

As has been stated, Chancellor Zabriskie, who well knew his qualities, named him to the 
Governor as the first Vice-Chancellor. He was remarkably well fitted for the duties of an 
equity judge, and he fulfilled them from the outset with such ability and public approval 
that he was soon appointed a judge of the Court of Errors and Appeals, holding both 
offices until the urgency of other duties required him to resign them. 

The office of Vice-Chancellor was created by the Act of April 6, 1S71, entitled "An 
act to facilitate the proceedings of the Court of Chancery." It had become necessary in 
consequence of the great increase of equity business, and the cumbrous and dilatory methods 
of taking testimony in Chancery suits. The proofs had been taken in writing before masters, 
and the cases were heard before the Chancellor on these written depositions. The single 
chancellor had become overwhelmed with work. This law under the administration <>t Mr. 
Dodd most effectually fulfilled its object in facilitating these proceedings. It provided for the 
reference of cases by the Chancellor to the Vice-Chancellor, and for hearing the evidence 
orally as in jury trials in courts of law, and for stenographic reports of the testimony. Mr. 
Dodd entered with zeal upon the new duties for which he was so eminently fitted. He was a 
model equity judge under this new system, which made the trial of equity controversies like 
that of cases at common law, but without the embarrassments of the jury system or the tech- 
nicalities of common law procedure. 

In a tribunal like this Mr. Dodd found a congenial field for the exercise of his powers. 
His extensive acquaintance with legal principles, his rare wisdom and patience, his wide 
knowledge of affairs, his clear and forcible style, and his power of unravelling complicat 
details, combined to inspire public confidence and to make the new method ol deciding equity 
cases popular. It grew in favor, and the result has been a great extension ot the system. 



t;2 



J-.X CYCLOPEDIA 



There are now in the State four Vice-Chancellors, and the Court has gained greatly in. public 
confidence and usefulness. 

It was a subject of regret that Mr. Dodd was compelled to abandon this office before the 
expiration of his term. So valuable had been his services that he was induced by Chancellor 
Runyon to resume it in [881, but was obliged to relinquish the position again, upon his 
appointment to the office of president of the great life insurance company of which he is now 
the head. To this important office he is devoting the qualities and powers, in their maturity, 
which have distinguished him throughout his professional and judicial life. 





^a&f«^&<&-. 



OF BIOGRAPHY. i 7s 

a BELL, ARUNAH SHEPHERDSON. There is no more remarkable feature of 
modern civilization than the newspaper of to-day, and the transformation which 
has been affected in the daily life and surroundings of progressive nations l>y the 
discoveries of science and the triumphs of inventive genius, is not more wonderful 
than the change and development that have marked the history of journalism. The 
newspaper of "our fathers " is further removed from that of the present than the old stage 
coach from the lightning express of the nineteenth century. Great newspapers, like the 
Baltimore S?t>/, whose career illustrates all that is best and most successful in journalism, 
combine and embody in their daily issues all the highest achievements and results of the age. 
Not content to be merely the " abstracts and brief chronicles of the times," they cover a held 
that is limited only by the capacity of human thought and action. Argus-like, the)- perceive 
everything that happens even in the remotest quarters of the earth, and with more arms than 
Briareus make it at once their own. 

Unfortunately, when this has been said, all has been said that can truthfully be asserted 
of many of the newspapers of the day. In the heat of party strife or the rivalry of 
professional competition, many of them have forgotten their real mission and the true reason 
for their existence, and are willing to serve merely as reflectors of the events, the virtues and 
the vices of the times, instead of aspiring to the higher role of public leaders. In seeking 
the answer to the question — what is a great newspaper? — we must look for something more 
than the superficial indications to which the thoughtless attach importance. To constitute 
journalistic greatness all the qualities are necessary that are essential, for instance, to an ideal 
type of manhood. Greatness, in its highest development, does not consist of brains alone, 
nor in physical perfection, but in the union of these with moral character. There are scores 
of newspapers which are great in mechanical equipment and striking in intellectual brilliancy, 
but which utterly lack moral balance and conservative direction. That paper only can be 
considered as possessing a genuine title to the distinction of greatness which combines with 
the journalistic body and mind an illuminating soul that makes it a moral force and a source 
of inspiration and help to all who read it. 

No newspaper in this country so completely answers this description and so thoroughly 
fulfills these conditions as the Baltimore Sun. To those who have the misfortune to be 
unacquainted with it, this assertion may seem exaggerated, but it will receive the unqualified 
endorsement of its hundreds of thousands of readers in every section of the Union, who 
have come to regard it with an admiration and love that are in general accorded onl) to 
individuals. 

The Sun's career presents an interesting and instructive study to all who are ambitious 
to achieve distinction in the profession of which it is in many respects the leading repre- 
sentative. Why it unites so admirably enterprise and conservatism, courage ;ui<\ discretion. 



174 ENCYCLOPEDIA 

Tessiveness against public wrong with charity and forbearance to private weakness is best 
indicated by the life and characteristics of its founder, the late Arunah Shepherdson Abell. 
I'k nil on August 10, 1S06, at Seekonk, then known as Rehoboth, Rhode; Island, he came of a 
sturdy English ancestry who were among tin; first settlers of the place of his nativity. 
Robert Abell, his grandfather, served with distinction in the Revolutionary War, and his 
father, Caleb Abell, in the War of 1812. His mother, Elona Shepherdson, daughter of 
Colonel Arunah Shepherdson, was remarkable for her superior character and intelligence, and 
transmitted to her son the traits which made his life so successful. 

Mr. Abell was educated in his native town, and began his business career as a clerk with 
a merchant of East Providence. But his tastes lay in a different direction, and after an 
apprenticeship in the office of the Providence Patriot, he secured employment in one of the 
best printing offices in Boston, of which he soon became foreman. His ambition pointed out 
a wider field, however, and, removing to New York, he formed a business partnership with 
William M. Swain and A. H. Simmons, both like himself practical printers, which subsequently 
resulted in the establishment in Philadelphia of a one-cent paper, the Public Ledger, the first 
issue of which appeared on Friday, March 25, 1836. 

The early history of the Ledge) proved at once the natural business capacity of Mr. 
Abell, as well as his calm courage and clear insight into the popular mind. The new venture 
was coldly received at first, but with a patient tenacity of purpose that was not to be wearied 
out by adverse circumstances, the publication was continued until its success was put beyond 
the reach of doubt. 

In April, 1S37, Mr. Abell visited Baltimore, where he saw an opening for an enterprise 
similar to the Ledger, and the result of this visit was the Baltimore Sun, the first number of 
which appeared on the 17th of May, 1837. His partners in the Ledger were also interested 
financially in the Sun, but their consent to this new undertaking was obtained on the condition 
that he would take personal control of it, and the triumph that rewarded his efforts was 
essentially and entirely his own. It began its career in the face of the active competition of 
five newspapers and at a period of great financial depression, but it was successful from the 
very beginning. In less than three months it had a circulation greater than the Ledger had 
obtained in nine, and within a year a circulation twice as great as that of the oldest paper in 
Baltimore. 

Mr. Abell retained his interest in the Ledger until 1864, and four years later became the 
sole proprietor of the Sun. He lived to see the paper which he had founded become one of 
the richest as well as one of the broadest and best in the country, and on the occasion of its 
semi-centennial anniversary on May 17, 1S87, received numerous assurances from every section 
of cordial appreciation of his services as a journalist and of earnest esteem for his personal 
worth. President Cleveland telegraphed from Washington: "Accept my congratulations 
upon the fiftieth anniversary of your management of the Baltimore Sim, with the hope that 



OF BIOGRAPHY. , 75 

your influence for good may long continue to guide its course" Similar congratulations were 
received from the Mayor of Baltimore and from citizens and from organizations without regard 
to party, and formal resolutions were adopted by the City Council, in which the Sun and its 
founder were recognized as agencies which had largely "contributed to the advancement, 
growth and benefit of the city, and to the comfort, instruction and pleasure of its 
inhabitants." 

His death, which occurred on April 19, iSSX, in the eighty-second year of his age, afforded 
further proof of the depth and earnestness of public and private esteem. The resolutions of 
Mayor and City Council only gave expression to the general sentiment in saying that in his 
death the community had lost a representative "who modestly portrayed, during a long and 
useful life, the best characteristics of the highest type of American citizenship," and that "for 
integrity, sagacity and truthfulness, for depth and breadth of conception of public duty and 
obligation, for genuine patriotism, benevolence and popularity, for high moral courage, sus- 
tained by unerring judgment in the defense of public and private rights, and for the exercise 
of the highest amenities of life, he stood among the most pre-eminent of the best men of this 
community." 

A civic crown such as this is rarely laid upon any grave, and a public verdict so 
spontaneous and so well deserved is rare as the lilework which it commended. 

The principles which have guided the S?m from the beginning, and which still direct its 
course, were announced in its first issue in the following terse lantmaefe : "We shall give no 
place to religious controversy nor to political discussions of merely partisan character. ( >n 
political principles and questions involving the honor and interest of the whole country we 
shall be firm and temperate. Our object will be the common good, without regard to 
sections, factions or parties, and for this object we shall labor without fear or partiality." To 
this code of principles the Suit has adhered without the variation of a hair's breadth ever 
since, maintaining them when greater profit might have been found in their abandonment, and 
in the face of the sneers and hostility of partisans and extremists. When the S101 was 
founded, the average newspaper of the day was anything but what the name implied. When 
it was not a collection of dull essays, it was often a medium of violent personal controversy. 
News was a comparatively rare feature, and seemed, as a rule, the last consideration of the 
publishers. Most American newspapers of to-day have gone to the opposite extreme, and in 
their eagerness to outstrip their rivals and to extend their circulation, deal with men and events 

in the most sensational and highly-colored style, and frequently offend against both g I morals 

and good taste. Mr. Abell saw that true journalism lay between the extremes of the old and tin- 
modern school. In the field of news his enterprise knew no obstacles, and was ready to 
challenge competition from any quarter, but private character and family lite was sacred in his 
sight, and there was no inducement strong enough to tempt him to make his paper the 
purveyor of scandal, ami even the echo of thoughtless gossip. 



176 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

In legitimate newspaper enterprise the Su/i has always been abreast of the times and 
very often in advance of them. Its owners were the tirst to purchase the rotary printing 
machines, the invention of Richard M. Hoe, which have worked a revolution in the art of 
printing, but which were at first rejected by the New York publishers. The Sun Iron Building 
was the first practical exemplification in this country of the feasibility of constructing large 
buildings of iron, and formed an important addition to the architectural attractions of the city. 
It was among the very first to recognize the possibilities of the telegraph and gave to its 
inventor early and substantial support and encouragement, and it is interesting in this 
connection to recall the fact that the first presidential message transmitted by wire was sent 
exclusively to the Sun, on May 16, 1846, and published in its next day's issue. The 
proprietors of the Sun were also among the incorporators of the first telegraph company, and 
it also gave strong and intelligent support to the project of a submarine cable when the world 
in general was still skeptical as to its practicability. Its pony expresses were the wonder and 
the pride of journalism in the days when the telegraph service was still in its infancy, and it 
distanced all competitors in securing news from European steamers at remote ports and from 
the seat of war during the conflict with Mexico, its overland express from New Orleans (.luring 
tint period comprising sixty horses, which almost invariably beat the great Southern Mail 
from New Orleans to Baltimore by over thirty hours. Every discovery of science and every 
species of invention capable ot application in its business has been promptly utilized in its 
mechanical departments, so that to-day it is superbly equipped in every physical requirement 
of a great newspaper. 

At the death of Mr. A. S. Abell in 18SS, the exclusive management of the paper was 
vested in his three sons, and co partners, Edwin F., George W. and Walter R. Abell, who 
had been practically associated in its direction for many years previously, and who had been 
prepared from boyhood for the honorable and responsible charge which was in time to be 
committed to their hands. Their succession meant no change in the spirit or policy of the 
Sun. Fortunately for that great enterprise, its founder left them a richer inheritance than his 
wealth in the moral and intellectual qualities which he transmitted to them. Mis enterprise, 
business sagacity and wisdom are repeated in his successors with a fidelity that is remarkable 
even in this country, where talent and force of character are more frequently reproduced than 
in lands whose institutions afford less scope for sharply defined individuality. 

Thus is it that what the Sun is to-day in spirit and purpose it has been from the beginning, 
presenting the remarkable example of a paper in which there has been virtually no change in 
management during a career of more than half a century, the splendid journal of to day being 
the logical and the natural development of the penny publication of 1837. The ambition of 
its present owners is to make its future worthy of its past history and achievements. Man)' 
years ol training and experience in the best schools of journalism, and a natural newspaper 
faculty that is born, not learned, make them, while still comparatively young in years, veterans 



OF BIOGRAPHY. i;7 

in the profession, and peculiarly fitted to meet the responsibilities of their position. Under 
their management the Sun has grown more vigorous, prosperous, public-spirited and 
enterprising than ever, without losing its reverence for personal reputation and private rights, 
Independent, honest, consistent, clean, courageous, the organ of no party, the voice of no 
faction, it has continued under their management to be a model of every newspaper virtue, 
and has steadily advanced in business, circulation, and in general admiration and respect. 
Wherever it is known the name of the Baltimore Sun is a synonym for all the qualities that 
make a newspaper truly great. The loss of such an influence for good would he a public 
calamity, and those who appreciate the value of an incorruptible and independent press will 
unite in the wish that the closing years of the twentieth century, like those of the nineteenth, 
may still find the Sun under the same family management, and still the champion ami 
exponent of all that is highest and best in the newspaper world. Its circulation and business 
are larger than those of any paper in the South, and it is the favorite business medium of all 
classes of people in Baltimore and contiguous communities, while its reliability and fairness 
give its news and editorial columns the force of authority with men of the most divergent 
political opinions and creeds. Within the last few years it has erected at the National capital. 
for the accommodation of its Washington bureau, a structure that is regarded as one of the 
handsomest in the city of magnificent buildings. The sudden death in January, 1891, of Mr. 
Walter R. Abell, the youngest member of the firm, was a sad blow to the many friends to 
whom his modest and manly qualities had deeply endeared him. 

o. p. 1;. 




10 



i;S ENCYCLOPAEDIA 



v^^VICKERS* >N, MAI II. < ».\. two years a Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersej 

I and two years Governor and Chancellor, was a descendant of Philemon Dickerson, 

"^^-^ who, with his brothers, emigrated from England and landed in Massachusetts in 

1638. He was admitted a freeman ol the town of Salem in 1641, and removed to 

Southold, Long Island, 1672. lie hid two sons, Thomas and Peter. Thomas had lour sons, 

all o! whom moved to Morris county, New Jersey, about 1745. and from these the Dickersons 

and Dickinsons, as some write their names, ot this State are descended. Mahlon was the 

grandson ol one ol these, and the son of Jonathan Dickerson, and was born in 1771. lie 

graduated at Princeton College in [789. In 1793 he was licensed as an attorney, hut does 

not appear to have taken the degree o I counselor. The next year alter his graduation lie 

joined Captain Kinney's troop of horse, and served in the expedition sent into Pennsylvania 

to suppress the Whiskey Insurrection. 

He had two brothers, one of whom became a physician and the other a lawyer, and they 
appear to have all taken up their residence in Philadelphia. Mahlon studied for a time in the 
office ol |ames Milnor, afterwards quite distinguished as a member of Congress, and a clergy- 
man ol the Hpiscopal Church at New York. lie was admitted to the Par n\ Pennsylvania in 
the year 1 797. 

In politics he was a zealous Republican, and for some time wrote for the Aurora 
newspaper, edited Py William Duane. In 1799 this party elected Chief pistice M'Kean 
Governor ol Pennsylvania tor three years, and he was re elected twice afterwards, holding the 
office nine years, then ineligible lor another term. Dickerson was chosen a member of the 
Common Council, and in 1 S02 was appointed by Mr. Jefferson a Commissioner of Bankruptcy, 
in company with A. J. Dallas, John Serjeant and Joseph Claw leading supporters of the 
Jefferson Administration. In 1805 Governor M'Kean appointed him Adjutant-General, which 
office he resigned in 1S0S, to take the place of Recorder of the City, a judicial office, held, as 
then constituted, during good behavior, and as such a member of the Mayor's Court, 
exercising criminal jurisdiction in the city, and having besides the power and jurisdiction of 
a justice ol tlie peace. 

Governor M'Kean was at this time somewhat advanced in life, and had held high offices, 
and was naturally irascible and sell-willed. I lis powers under the existing Constitution of the 
State was very extensive, the appointment of the State and many of the countj offices being 
vested in him, without the necessity ol submitting them to any other branch, and the judicial 
offices held during good behavior, with the provision that they might be removed by the 
Governor upon the request ol two-thirds ol each branch of the Legislature. It was said that 
upon one occasion, when such a request was made, the Governor appearing to hesitate, a 
committee ol those in favor ol the removal waited on him, and submitted a formal argument 





i&s£e^#/y? 



OF BIOGRAPHY, i 79 

to the effect that the won! "may," as used in the Constitution, made it his duty to comply, but 
after hearing them to the end, he broke up the conference by declaring that in the ca e before 
him "may" meant "won't." During the Governor's second term. In- so entire] \ disregarded 
the attempted dictation oi the more violent Democrats, among other appointments conferring 
the place ot Chiei Justice- on William Tilghman, one of the Federal fudgesofthe United States 
Circuit Court, that he was openly attacked by the Awoni. and an attempl was made to impea< h 
him. But many of the more intelligent and conservative Republicans, including Dallas, 
Serjeant, Ingham and Dickerson, supported M'Kean, forming what they called the Consti- 
tutional Republican part)', but called by Michael Leib, a noted politican of that day, a Tertium 
Quid party, from which they were commonly designated Quds. Dickerson was a zealous and 
active supporter <>t this party, and wrote many political squibs in the newspapers that 
supported it. Their Governor was re-elected by the aid of the Federalists. 

I lis lather having died, leaving what proved to be a very valuable real estate, I >ickerson 
took up his residence in 1S10 in Morris county, N. J., for the purpose of taking charge of it. 
In 1S12, and again in 1813, he was elected a member of the Assembly from Morris county. 
While thus a member, he was chosen by the joint meeting in November, 1813, fustice of the 
Supreme Court, in the place of Pennington, elected Governor. He received the twenty nine 
votes of his part)-, the others, numbering twenty, voting for Isaac II. Williamson. He was 
also appointed reporter, but did not accept the appointment, and in fact no case decided while 
he was on the bench has been reported. It has been well understood that he had no love for 
the profession of a lawyer, nor for the position oi a judge or chancellor. He was chosen 
Governor without opposition in 1815, and was re-chosen in 1816. But in February, 1817, he 
was chosen Senator, no person being nominated in opposition ; and in November, [822, he 
was again chosen in the same manner. When his term again expired in [829, a majority of 
the Legislature were opposed to him in politics, and Theodore Frelinghuysen was Ihosen 
Senator for six years. But it happened that Ephraim Bateman, who had been Senator two 
years, was compelled by illness to resign, and a contest arose in filling that vacancy. William 
B. Ewing, a member oi the Ass :mbly, was a candidate, and Mr. Southard, who still held the 
place of Secretary of the Navy at Washington, was advocated l>y his friends. After many 
ineffectual votes, the opponents of Southard carried a resolution that he was ineligible, 
because his residence was not in the State. The result was that a majority oi the votes w 
finally cast tor I >ickerson. 

During the sixteen years Mr. Dickerson Tield the place of Senator, In- was an influential 
member of that body, ranking among the old-fashioned Republicans, opposed ti> ( alhoun and 
his doctrines, friendly to William 11. Crawford, rather than to Adams or Jackson ; but taking 
side^ with [ackson, when things so fell out, aft'-r much backing and filling, that his party took 
the place of the Democrats. Being largely interested in iron mines, he differed from many 
ol his political associates and advocated a high protective tariff, 



iSo US' CYCLOPAEDIA 

In May, [834, he was appointed Minister to Russia, and expected, for some time, to 
.H cept the position, and to take his departure for St. Petersburg, but finally decided to remain 
at home, as was understood, at the particular request of Mr. Van Buren, to afford him his aid 
in securing his nomination and election as President. In June- of that year he was taken into 
( General Jackson's cabinet as Secretary of the Navy, and remained in that position four years, 
when he resigned, and may be said to have retired from public life. 

In September, 1S40, the office of Judge of the District Court becoming vacant by the 
death of Judge Rossell, he was appointed to succeed him, and retained the office until early 
in March, 1S44, when he resigned, and his brother Philemon was appointed. The latter was 
a member of the House of Representatives, where parties were very evenly divided, so that 
it was not thought desirable by his part}- friends that he should resign, to prevent which, 
Mahlon accepted and performed the duties of the office about six months. Alter this he was 
lor two years president of the American Institute at New York. He had an ample fortune, 
but left no descendants never having been married. He died at his residence in Suckasunny, 
Morris county, in the year 1 S 5 3 , at the age of eighty-two. 

L. ( :>. C. E. 






'/s/e^rytr?^ 



OF BIOGRAPHY. l8l 

v^^VICKERSON, PHILEMON, a brother of Mahlon, was licensed as an attorney in 

I i S 1 3 and as a counselor in 1817; in 1834 was made a sergeant-at-law. ft may 

■^V-^ be mentioned that this last degree was originally of some importance, as only 

sergeants could pass a common recovery in the Supreme Court, which followed in 

that respect the practise of the English Court of Common Pleas. As for a time the- examiners 

of students were appointed exclusively from the sergeants, tint distinction was continued until 

1839, since which date no sergeants have been designated. 

In the winter of 1812, Mr. Dickerson was residing in Philadelphia, and I became 
acquainted with him there. In a short time he took up his residence at Paterson, in New 
Jersey, married and practised law there. In 1S33 he was elected member of Assembly ; and 
in [836 was chosen Governor by the Jackson party, holding the office, however, but one year, 
that party, which had now assumed tin- name of 1 >emocrats, being defeated in 1837. In 1839 
he was placed by the Democrats on their ticket for Congress, and, as was finally settled, 
received a majority of the votes, but owing to irregularities in some of the township returns, 
they were thrown out by two of the county clerks, so that the votes returned to the- Governor 
did not show him elected, and the certificates were given to others. In 1 S41, he was appointed, 
by Mr. Van Buren, Judge of the District Court, and held that office until his death, at the age 
of about seventy, in 1862. He was afflicted by a cancer in his face. 

The few opinions he had occasion to deliver during the year he was Chancellor, arc 
reported in Green's Chan. Rep., and show him to have possessed a discriminating mind, and 
a good knowledge of law and equity. The case of The Associate Reformed Church vs. The 
Trustees of the Theological Seminary at Princeton, 3 Green, 77, involved the right of the latter 
body to the possession of a valuable theological library, and delicate questions respe< ting the 
rights and duties of the Synods of the respective Churches, in the formation of a union. His 
decision against the defendants was acquiesced in, without appeal. In the case of I fulmc vs. 
Shreve, 3 Green, 116, he had occasion to consider the rights of parties owning mill sites, and 
the effect of flowing back the water, and at the request oi the parties made a personal 
examination of the premises ; his opinion shows how lull)- he mastered all the difficulties oi the 
subject. The decree made in conformity to his views, was affirmed in the higher court by a 
very decisive vote. 

He had a good practise as a lawyer, and was a satisfactory judge as Chancellor, and in 
the United States Court. He was distinguished lor dry humor, one instance of which occurred 
just after the War of the Rebellion commenced. A zealous Republican, who was summoned 
as foreman of the grand jury, proposed that all the jurymen present should take tin- oath to 
support the Constitution of the United States. Upon which the Judge remarked, in th<- most 
quiet, business-like manner, that if any persons in the court were so distrustful oi themselves 
as to think the oath necessary, he was quite ready to administer it. No one responded, and 
the business of the court proceeded as usual. L. Q. C I 



1 82 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 



KEASBEY, ANTHONY Q., ol Newark, lawyer and United States District Attorney 
for the District of New Jersey ; was born March i, 1824, in Salem, New [ersey. 
Mis ancestors were among the earliest settlers of Salem Count}', the capital of 

which, Salem, was the first place settled in West Jersey, having been founded in 
[675 by John Fenwick, the English Quaker, who then claimed authority as chief proprietor 
over that section ol the province. 

Edward Keasbey, the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, bore a prominent 
part in the public affairs of New Jersey during the period that ushered in the War of 
Independence, 

In November, 1763, he "was returned a representative to serve in the General Assembly 
for the colonies of Salem and Cumberland," in which capacity he served until 1 } 

He was elected me of the deputies for Salem to the Provincial Congress, which 
assembled at Trenton in October, 1775, and attended the session of that Congress held at 
New Brunswick in 1770, at which a State Constitution was adopted, tin- statehood of New 
Jersey and the nationality of the United Colonies dating from the same Near. In 177S he was 
appointed a member of the Council ol Safety. His son, Anthony Keasbey, was for a long 
time Clerk ol the County of Salem, and from 1 70N to 1S01 represented that county in the 
General Assembly. The father of the present subject, Edward Q. Keasbey, born in [793, 
was a physician, having studied with Dr. Philip Physick, of Philadelphia, and been engaged 
in active practise until his death in 1S47. His learning, however, extended beyond the bounds 
of his profession, as did his training and activity; insomuch that February 27, 1S40, he was 
appointed a Judge ol tin- Court of Common Pleas, and in 1 S44 was chosen a presidential 
elector by the Whigs, of whose peerless leader, Henry Clay, he was a strong supporter. lie 
resided all his life in Salem. 

Anthony Q. Keasbey, the son, was graduated at Yale College in 1843, ami shortly 
afterwards began the stud)- of law, studying with Francis L. Macculloch, in Salem, ami 
subsequently with Cortlandt Parker, in Newark. He was admitted to the bar in October, 
[846, ami began tin: practise of the law in Salem, where he pursued it until 1853, at which 
time he removed to Newark, and in 1855 entered into partnership with Cortlandt Parker, his 
former preceptor, continuing in that relation for twenty years. 

In April, 1861, he was appointed by President Lincoln United States Attorney for the 
District of New Jersey, and reappointed in April, 1S65 ; but his new commission not having 
been signed at Mr. Lincoln's death, he was provisionally appointed by President Johnson till 
the next session of the Senate, when in [866, the reappointment was regularly made. He 
was again reappointed by President Grant in 1N70, and again in 1X71. He was reappointed 
by Presidenl Hayes and again by President Arthur, so that upon the expiration of his last 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 183 

term of four years, in April, (886, he had held the office for twenty-five years Since then he 
has been actively engaged in the practise of his profession. 

After the dissolution of his long partnership with Mr. Parker he associated with him his 
two sons, Edward Q. and George M., in the law firm of A. Q. Keasbej & Sons, which 
connection still exists. 

Mr. Keasbey has been twice married. His first wife was the daughter of the Hon. [acob 
W. Miller, of Morristown, one of the most noted and eloquent advocates of the Xew [ersey 
bar, and for two consecutive terms a Representative of his State in the Senate of the United 
States. Her death occurred at a comparatively earl)- age. Her sister became his second 
wife and until her recent death filled a large place in the most cultivated and beneficent cin l< 
of Newark ; a lady of remarkable elevation and worth of character added to unusual mental 
endowments. 

Mr. Keasbey' s long', if not unprecedented, tenure of the office of District Attorney of 
the United States, continued through so many successive administrations with the endorsement 
and approbation of so many lawyers, judges and public men cognizant of the manner in which 
his official duties were discharged, is a testimonial of professional and personal merit such as 
few men are fortunate enough to receive. His brethren in the legal profession who, like the 
writer, have had opportunities to know his professional abilities, hold them in very high esti 
mation. While especially gifted with the qualities of an advocate, he would have been an 
excellent judge. His fitness for judicial duties was recognized after the death of fudge Nixon 
of the U. S. District Court by the opinion of a large number of competent judges emphatically 
expressed in favor of his appointment to the vacant post — a post which he would unquestion- 
ably have filled with great usefulness to the public and honor to himself. His age, approaching 
si.xty-si.x, led to the preference of a younger man. Mr. Keasbey early manifested unusual 
powers as a public speaker. His defense in a trial for murder in the beginning of his practise 
in Salem, attracted much attention for its ready and pursuasive eloquence. The earnest, 
fluent and lucid style of his speech is equally apparent, whether arguing a legal question in 
court, summing up before a jury or addressing a popular assembly. In political meetings he 
has always been among the most interesting and effective- of speakers. Particularly was this so 
during the trying times of the war. His own hopeful courage never failed to tell upon those 
who heard him, and made his appearance on the platform always welcome to patriotic 
gatherings for upholding the Government against the rebellion. This hopeful courage, 
conspicuous in his conduct in public affairs, has been also a distinguishing trait in his personal 
private relations. The financial disturbances beginning in [873, which brought upon propertj 
owners and business men complications and loss.-s, that the wisest forecast had not expected, 
were well known to have fallen heavily on him. While others, similarly surprised and affected, 
availed themselves of legal methods of discharge and relief to which upright friends deemed it 
right also for him to resort, he declined to Ao so, and confronting the difficulties that surrounded 



[84 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

him with unflagging spirit and energy, worked his way through years of strenuous and 
successful labor out of all embarrassments, meeting (-very obligation and winning anew a 
position of independence alike honorable and deserved. 

This manifestation of high and forceful character has been justly admired and has added 
largely to his general repute. 

Mr. Keasbcy combines to a remarkable degree the qualities of a man of thought and a 
man of active affairs; is a writer of clear and vigorous prose, occasionally also of verse; is 
well read in general literature and especially familiar with the great writers and thinkers of 
our own times, whose distinctive views and teachings, whether literary, political, philosophical 
or religious, he is ready and eager to discuss. He is noted as an animated, engaging talker, 
and, it should in fairness be added, a good listener, besides. Nature has been generous to 
him ot her physical as well as of her mental gifts. A strong and compact constitution has 
favored him with unusual power of endurance and capacity for work, irrepressible energy, 
vivacity of spirits, and now promises many years of life and health to come. 




OF BIOGRAPHY. ,,s- 



. >^\QTTS, FREDERIC A. Among the representative citizens "l New [ersey the 
K^^ subject of this sketch held a foremost place. Alike in the elevation ol his per 

f* sonal character, and the quality of his personal services, he illustrated the 

characteristics of an honorable ancestry. That ancestry reached hark to the 
formative period of our national history. I lis gnu grandfather, Thomas Potts, was a hading 
Quaker, sharing in the broadest sense the patriotic sentiments which made his seel so positive 
a factor in the initial colonial struggles for libertj and genuine popular government In the 
councils of the early patriots which led up to the Revolution, he was a prominent and influ 
ential figure, being a Representative from his district in the Continental Congress, and 
impressing himself largely upon the life ol that crucial and stormy time. Some timi before 
1776, Thomas Potts purchased a large part ol what is known as the Musconnetcong Valley 
(in Hunterdon and Warren counties), his tract embracing an area of many thousands of 
acres, and here he established and carried on successfully the manufacture of iron, being the 
pioneer in that industry in that part of the State, ami upon his decease, his widow married 
Dr. John Rockhill, of Pittstown, and from that union dates the connection of these two historic 
families, and the settlement of the descendants of Thomas Potts on the homestead which the 
great-grandson still occupies. Hugh Potts, the son of Thomas, and the grandfather ol 
Frederic, was in his day also a man of mark, with the same patriotic impulses and tendencies 
which had made the life of his father a potential force. He was an officer in the first army 
raised by John Adams, and subsequently, having married Miss I lews, the daughter of a 
wealthy Irish gentleman of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, purchased an estate in that State, fronting 
on the Delaware river, opposite to the present town of Milford, in New Jersey, llis young 
son was George H. Potts, who was the father of Frederic. This gentleman, ambitious to 
achieve success and fortune in a new held, removed as early as [829 to the anthracite coal 
regions of Pennsylvania, when the coal industry was in its infancy, and up to [874, a period 
of forty-five years, maintained an active connection with the business which he had done so 
much to develop —establishing meanwhile a reputation as a financier and man ol affairs which 
brought him into close official relations with some of the most important financial institutions 
of the country. In 1S79, he became president of the National Park Bank of New York, and 
that position, with others scarcely less honorable, he held for many years. 

Frederic A. Potts was born in April, [836, at Pottsville. Pennsylvania, where his father 
then resided. He was educated at the high school in that town. Taking up the duties and 
responsibilities of active life at the age of sixteen, he associated himself with his father in the 
management of his large affairs as a miner and shipper of' coal, continuing in this relation 
until [854, when he entered the service of Louis Audenried & Co., and was placed in the 
Boston office of that old and notable firm, of which his father was a member. In January. 



[86 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

i s 5 5 , he was transferred to New York, where he remained in the employ <>l the firm, in a 
confidential capacity, until 1X67, when he became a partner, with a more general and authori 
tative management of its affairs. In January, 1874, the senior members of the firm retired 
and Mr. Potts proceeded with the business, which was carried on with such enterprise and 
energy that it became the largest individual business ot its kind in the country. 

As illustrating its wonderful growth, and the amazing development also of this particular 
industry, it may be stated that whereas the firm of Audenried c\i Co., during the first year after 
its organization, sold but 154,000 tons of coal, Mr. Potts in a few years ran his sales up to 
1,500,000 tons annually. 

While applying himself earnestly to the management of his personal affairs, which steadily 
increased in magnitude and importance, Mr. Potts was equally active in other important 
relations, financial and commercial, never refusing his services where they could be employed 
in the interest of others. 1 Ie was for years a director of the First National Bank, of Clinton, 
New Jersey; the National Park Bank, of New York ; the American Loan and Trust Company; 
the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company, of Newark, New Jersey, and of the New York, 
Susquehanna and Western Railroad, of which he was also president and general manager. 
When the Central Railroad Company, of New Jersey, some years ago, became seriously 
involved financially and forced into the hands of a receiver, Mr. Potts was selected by the bond- 
holders as one of the three representatives in the directory of the company, and he remained 
in the board until the death of the receiver, helping largely by his sound business judgment 
and high executive ability, to avert the disaster or a destruction of this great property, which 
at one time seemed probable, and contributing to that restoration of its securities in the public 
confidence which, but for a change in the control of the company, consequent upon a lease of 
its road, would, in all probability, have finally placed it upon a solid business basis. 

Like all men of earnest convictions, Mr. Potts was from his early manhood actively iden- 
tified with politics and political movements. Reaching his majority about the time of the 
formation of the Republican party, and educated in the principles which it aimed to incarnate 
in the National policy, he enlisted heartily in its service, and from that time torward has ranked 
among its most faithful members. I lis fellow-citizens were quick to discover his qualities ot 
leadership, and in 1X72, at the urgent solicitation of the Republicans of the Fourth (4th) Dis- 
trict of New fersey, known as the " Democratic Gibraltar," ami embracing the territory once 
owned by his great-grandfather, now crowded with villages and a prosperous farming popu- 
lation, he became their candidate for Congress. So great was his popularity, even at that 
early stage of his career, that, while antagonized by a candidate of exceptional strength, he 
reduced the Democratic majority of 5,000 more than one-half. Two years later, obedient to an 
almost unanimous demand of his party, he run for the office of State Senator from Hunterdon 
count\, at that time newer held by a Republican ; ami after a campaign characterized on both 
sides by unprecedented excitement and activity, was elected by a majority of 2X6 — overcoming 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 187 

and annihilating the traditional Democratic majority of from 1,500 to 1,800. In the Senate to 
which he was thus elected, Mr. l'otts held from the first a leading and influential position. 1 le 
was Chairman of the Finance Committee, and served on the Committees on Judiciary, Sinking 
Fund, the Revision of the Constitution, and other important subjects, and was identified closely 
with all the important legislation of his period of service. He was especially active in his 
efforts in behalf of education and of all State institutions designed lor the (an- oi the unfor- 
tunate, and the reclamation and reform of the erring. He was also zealous in his supporl <>| 
measures looking to the simplification of the tax system of the State and the equalization ol 
the burdens of government. In the deliberations of the Committee on the Revision ol the 
Constitution, which was charged with the whole subject of constitutional reform, and sat for 
several weeks as a high court of criticism and review, his counsels always hail a determinative 
force, and he perhaps regarded what he was able to accomplish in that particular sphere with 
more satisfaction than attached to a contemplation of any other part of his official record. 

In 1878 Mr. Potts again accepted the Republican nomination for Congress in the Fourth 
District, and so sensibly had he grown in the public esteem that he was defeated by only 
1,500 as against a majority of 6,500 given in that district two years before to the Democratic 
candidate for President. Two years later, his party, not only in his own district, but in the 
State at large, demanded his services, and in a State convention marked by great unanimity 
and enthusiasm, placed him in nomination for the office of Governor. Mr. Potts did not 
desire this nomination, his business, grown to unexpected proportions and with wide reaching 
ramification, demanded his closest attention, and he was, besides, indisposed for family reasons 
to enter upon a contest which would involve many and serious sacrifices. Hut when the 
nomination came to him, bathed by the personal appeals of many leading men of the party 
in and out of the State, he rose, as he had always done, to the height of the occasion; recog 
nixing the claim of the community to the best services of its citizens, he put aside all personal 
considerations and accepted the post assigned to him. The campaign which ensued was, in 
many respects, one of the most remarkable in the history of the State. The political depths 
were stirred as never before. The candidate of the Democratic party had been Mr. Potts' 
associate in the Senate, of which he was at one time president, and was a gentlemen of unsul 
lied character and admitted ability. Both candidates traversed the State, addressing popular 
assemblages and mingling with the people; and as the day of election approached the excite- 
ment became intense. When the votes had been counted Mr. l'otts appeared to be defeate 1 
by a majority of 652. There were many who believed that this declared result did not reflect 
the actual expression of the people, but while strongly urged to demand a scrutiny of the 
ballot boxes by the Legislature, Mr. Potts declined to take any steps in that direction, hold- 
ing that unless some positive evidence of fatal irregularities could be presented it would not 
become him to question the honesty of the electoral count. In this campaign Mr. Potts, b> 
his manly, straightforward and high-toned course as to all questions in issue, and his dignitj 



i88 



ENCYCLOPAEDIA 



and courtesy ol manner in his intercourse with the people, greatly strengthened his hold upon 
tin- voters ol the State, and while the result was a disappointment to his friends, the fact that 
he reduced the Democratic majority 1>\ some 5,000 and was the first Republican candidate in 
fifteen years who had made any real impression on that majority, afforded conclusive proof 
that they had not erred in committing the party standard to his hands. For many years Mr. 
Potts was .1 member of the Republican State Committee, and was active in other political 
relations where his influence was sought. A number of times he represented his State in 
National conventions of the party, and was a delegate to that in Cincinnati in 1K76, sup- 
ported the nomination of Hayes for President, and in that at Chicago in 1NS0 voted for James 
A, Garfield. His name was repeatedly mentioned in connection with the United State's Sena- 
torship, but he never personally encouraged any canvass in his behalf in that direction. 

Emerson has said that every man's life is full of judgment days. Unquestionably, all 
men are judged and weighed, more often than they think, by their contemporaries. Fortunate. 
indeed, are those who, when so judged and weighed, are able to stand the crucial test. Among 
these, every just estimate must place Frederic A. Potts. His public career, was apparent 
from the survey ol it herein made, was distinguished throughout by high conscientiousness, 
perfecl integrity, and uniform conformity to exalted standards of duty. A man of pronounced 
convictions, he never sacrificed principle to expediency, nor shrunk from the defense, at what- 
ever cost, ol ideas which he regarded as essential. A politician in the best sense, he served 
his party loyally and effectively in all its struggles lor supremacy, but, reserving- the right of 
private judgment, he sought at all times to elevate its aims and purify its methods, and never 
tailed to antagonize the efforts of the selfish and unworthy to subordinate its welfare to mere 
personal ends. In all the contests through which he passed, he preserved his independence 
o! cliques ami cabals, and so clean and pure was his life, that he commanded the respect of 
his political adversaries as truly as he enjoyed the admiration of his friends, while in the business 
world his name was, in the same high degree, recognized as a synonym for financial integrity 
and commercial honor. I le died 




OF BIOGRAPHY 



[89 



GLMER, LUCIUS QUINTIUS CINCINNATI'S. L.L. 1)., was hern at Bridgeton, 
Cumberland county, New Jersey, February 3, [793. lie was the oldest child and 
only son of General Ebencver Elmer, a Revolutionary patriot, by his wile Hannah 
Seeley, daughter of Colonel Ephraim and Hannah (Fithian) Seeley. General 
Elmer died October 18, 1843, m his ninety second year, and was the last survivor of the 
original members of the Society of the Cincinnati of New Jersey, of which he was, lor several 
years prior to his death, the president. It was owing to his interest in and connection with 
this society, that he named his son after the Roman Dictator from whom the society took its 
name. The family name was originally Aylmer, of whom one was Chief Baron of the 
Exchequer in 1535. John Aylmer was tutor to the unfortunate Lady Jane Grey, and in [568, 
was made Bishop of London by the name of John Elmer. The emigrant ancestor in this 
country was Edward Elmer, who came from England in [632, with the company of forty-seven 
persons, comprising the church of Rev. Thomas Hooker, and became one of the original 
proprietors of Hartford, Connecticut. He was killed by a straggling band of Indians during 
King Philip's War, in 1676. His second son, Samuel (b. 1649, ''• April, [691), had four 
children, the youngest of whom, Daniel (b. 1689, d. fanuary 14, 1755). was one of the 
graduates from Vale College, at Saybrook, in 1713. The next year he removed to \\ 
Springfield, Massachusetts, married, and became a Presbyterian minister. About 1720 he 
came to Fairfield, Cumberland county, New fersey, where he died. His eldest son, also 
Daniel (b. 1715, d. May 2, 1761), was the father of General Ebenezer Elmer, and grandfather 
of the subject of this sketch. 

L. 0. C. Elmer received his early education at the schools of Bridgeton. During tin- 
winter of 1803, he was sent to Woodbury to school, and the next year spent nine months at 
the boarding-school of Rev. Dr. Allison, at Bordentown. In the winter of i S 1 1-1 2 he attended 
a partial course at the University of Pennsylvania. The year previous to this Mr. Elmer had 
been entered as a student-atdaw in the office of his cousin, Daniel Elmer, afterward a [ustice 
of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, lor the term oi live years required by the rules oi the 
court. On returning from his studies at Philadelphia, the war then recentlj declared against 
England was the exciting topic, and Mr. Elmer enrolled hiimeH in the militia, became lieutenant 
of artillery, then Judge Advocate, and later Brigade Major and Inspector. In May. 1S15, he 
came up for examination for his license as an attorney, before the Supreme Court, when 
Andrew Kirkpatrick was Chief Justice, and according to the usage at that period, called in 
person upon the Governor, who was also Chancellor, with his recommendation signed by the 
Justices, and the Governor signed his commission. In May, 1818, he was licensed as a 
counselor, and in [834, called to be a sergeant. In the fall of [820, Mr. Elmer was ele< ted a 
member of the Assembl) from the county of Cumberland, on a union ticket, formed in 



iuo ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

opposition to the regular Democratic ticket, as an expression of adherence to the policy of 
President Monroe. He was re-elected in 1821, 1822 and 1823, the last year being chosen 
Speaker. In 1824, President Monroe appointed him United States Attorney for New Jersey, 
which position he held until 1829, when he was superseded by President [ackson. The duties 
of the olhce were not very onerous, for in five years he was District Attorney he had occasion 
to draw only one indictment, which was for obstructing the mail — the obstruction being that 
the defendant's horse could not trot so fast as Reedside's splendid teams of full-bloods, 
between Elizabeth and Newark. 

In 1843 Mr. Plmer was nominated by the Democratic party as their candidate to represent 
the First 1 >istrictin Congress. At the preceding election the Whigs had succeed in the district 
by about 1,200 majority, and, at the contest between Clay and Polk, in [844, carried it by i.ioo 
majority. Mr. klmer was elected by a majority of nearly 300, but was defeated at the following 
election. In 1850 he was made Attorney-General of the State, and held the position until 1S52, 
when he was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of New [ersey, and served the constitu- 
tional term of seven years. After the death of Judge Clawson, in 1X61, he was recalled to 
the same; position by Governor Olden, and continued in the active discharge of the duties of 
the office until 1S69, when, his commission expiring, he declined a reappointment on account 
of advancing years, and withdrew entirely from public life and business. In addition to the posi- 
tions already mentioned as filled by Judge Elmer, he was for many years Prosecutor of the Pleas 
for the counties of Cumberland and Cape May. He was also one of the joint commissioners 
with Richard Stockton, Theodore Frelinghuysen, James Parkerand fohh Rutherford, appointed 
in 1X27 1>\ the Governor of New [ersey for the settlement of the dispute with New York, 
respecting the waters dividing the two States. These commissioners had several conferences 
with the New York commissioners, but failed to agree upon any terms of settlement. In 
1833 new commissioners were appointed on the part of New York, ami Frelinghuysen, 
Parkerand Elmer were reappointed for New [ersey. Judge Elmer was the one to propose 
the middle of the river as the true boundary line, and upon this basis the adjustment was made 
and ratified by the Legislatures of both States, and approved by the Congress of the- United 
States. 

Judge Elmer also made several important contributions to historical literature. In 1 S 5 1 
he delivered, by request, before the bench and bar of New [ersey, an address upon the Pile 
and Character of Hon. Garret D Wall. In 1X60 he printed, in limited edition for the use of 
the family, Geneaology (sic) and Biography of Ihe Elmer Family, which has been much sought 
alter and has been so excessively scarce that it was unknown to Mr, W'hitmore when he pub- 
lished his American Genealogist in 186X. 

In [869 he published his History of Ihe Early Settlement and Progress of Cumberland 
County, New Jersey, and of the Currency of this and adjoining Colonies. Before the New 
Jersey Historical Society in May, 1X70, he read a History of the Constitution of New jersey. 



OF BIOGRAPHY. , fJ , 

adopted in 1770, and of the Government under it, and by request ol the same organization, 
he prepared a volume of 500 pages entitled The Constitution and Government 0/ the Province 
and S'ate of New Jersey, with biographical sketches of the Governors from 1770 to 1845, ;U1( ' 
Reminiscences oi the Bench and Bar during more than half a century, which was published 
in 1S72, as Volume YII of the Collections of the Society. 

He also published a Digest of the La:os of New Jersey, a Book of Law /'onus, and con- 
tributed a short account of the Titles to Land as hell in New Jersey to a new edition of Ins 
Diges', prepared by his son-in-law, the late United States District Judge, Hon. fohn '1'. Nixon. 
To a volume of local history entitled, The Pastor of the d Stone Chit ch, he added a Eulogy 
on Father Osborne, as he was called, who when he (.lied, May 1, 1858, lacked but three months 
and twenty days of being one hundred years old. At the lii Centennial celebration of the 
OKI Stone Church, at Fairfield, September 29, 1880, he presided and made the opening 
address. He was then in his eighty-eighth year. 

judge Elmer did not have, as has been seen, a collegiate education, but the College of 
New Jersey conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts in [825, and in [865 
gave him the Doctorate of Laws. He was chosen a trustee of the College in 1S29, and 
continued to serve until 1864, when he resigned. He was admitted to succeed his lather in 
the Society of the Cincinnati, July 4, 1845, ;ul( ' at tne t' me °f h' s death was its president. 
He was elected a corresponding member of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of 
Philadelphia April 6, 1871. 

Judge Elmer was married in the city of Philadelphia on the 6th of ( >ctober, [818, by the 
Rev. Mr. McCartee, Pastor of the Spruce Street Scotch Presbyterian Church, to Miss Catharine 
Hay. Her parents were from Dundee, who came over, alter being married there, directly 
upon the close of the Revolutionary War, ami settled in Philadelphia, where her father died 
of the yellow fever in 1793. 

fudge ami Mrs. Elmer celebrated their golden wedding, or fiftieth anniversary of their 
marriage, in 1868, having present with them on the occasion all their children (lour daughters, 
two married and two single) and grand-children. He survived nearly fifteen years, and died 
of old age at his residence in Bridgeton, Sunday, March 11, 1883, in his ninety first year. 
The combined lives of father and son thus covered the great period oi one hundred and 
eighty-two \ ears. 

I II II. 



i 9 2 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 



^"""Nl TRYKER, THOMAS J., cashier of the Trenton Banking Company, of Trenton, 

V^^^ X. J. Was born at Princeton, X. J., June 23, 800, and died at his home in Tren- 

,^*~S ton after a brief illness, September 28, 1 S 7 2 . For a period of thirty years he was 

the honored and trusted cashier of the Trenton Banking Company, whose true 

worth they graphically stated in one of the resolutions adopted by the Hoard of Directors, and 

stockholders, at a meeting called two days alter his death : — 

" Resolved, That the prosperity and usefulness of this bank, for the last quarter of a 
century, has keen, in a great measure, due to the faithful services, unwearied industry of the 
late cashier, who, while administering the affairs ol the bank with most careful regard to the 
interests ol the stockholders, never lost sight oi the dutywhich, in his opinion, the bank owed 
to the public, and especially to the business community of this city, with whose success and 
prosperity that of tin- bank is so closely connected." 

From tin- sermon delivered at his funeral, by his pastor, Rev. John Hall, 1 >. 1)., we derive 
the following account of his life : The voice of this whole community, during these last four 
days, has anticipated all that I could say ot the tacts which make the death of Thomas Johnson 
Stryker so generally deplored. Endeavoring to suppress any exaggeration to which personal 
attachment might unconsciously lead me, I only repeat what is heard on every side, when I say 
that it is seldom that a career is closed in death by which so many and various interests are 
affected. Had he only tilled one place, ami tilled it well, the vacancy caused by his departure 
would have justified our lamentation. Hut he was connected with ro much that concerns the 
public, and he was so efficient in whatever employed him, so few of the associations of his 
name, with anything to which he gave it, were merely nominal, that it is impossible to doubt 
that the grounds of the general regret are real, and the sorrow sincere. 

.\s a merchant and banker for forty eight years he was brought into connection with the 
general business of this city, and with its correspondents out of it for all that time. The con- 
tidence won by his judgment and integrity in these positions, extended beyond the mercantile 
line, and drew to him large numbers of persons lor friendly counsel in their humble affairs. 
Many a widow and orphan have cause to remember the protection he has thus afforded them, 
and the security in which he has placed their scant)' resources. Many can testify that he often 
added to his advice the means ot substantial relief. 

And so, as < xecutor, guardian, trustee, bondsman, arbitrator, the same confidence drew 
to him another large class of persons who knew how safe was their dependence, how judi- 
cious his mediation in controversies, how influential among men of all classes and tempers. 

Various positions ol a more public kind were, from time to time, occupied by him. He 
was once on the bench of the Common Pleas. He served as manager and secretary of the 
Lunatic Asylum, from its foundation to the latest meeting of the board. He was chosen by 






OF BIOGRAPHY. , 93 

the Legislature, with eight ol the most prominent citizens of the State, to represent New 
Jersey in what is known as the Peace Convention, at Washington, in 1861. He was one ol 
the commissioners, appointed by the Legislature, to rebuild the State House. He was presi 
dent ol the Trenton Academy, a director of the Savings Fund, first treasurer of the His- 
torical Society ol New Jersey, registrar of the Camden and Amboy Railroad Company, 
treasurer ol the Board of Trade, and has been constantly called to serve in positions which 
called lor a prompt and popular officer. 

The principles on which Mr. Stryker acted in his sundry secular occupations were more 
than those ol morality, or of what the Scripture calls the religion "taught by the precepts of 
men." His integrity, benevolence, and usefulness, wen- based on the accountability in which 
he held himsell to God. We have, therefore, no broad line to draw between his business life 
ami his religious lite, as if they were distinct domains. The Bible draws no such line. It is only 
another branch ol his associations with the community — one pursued day by day with the 
others, ami with the same sacred sanction — that is to he mentioned when we speak of his 
ecclesiastical connection with large numbers of persons. The greater part of his adult life was 
occupied, on the Lord's Day, as teacher or superintendent of the Sabbath Schools of this 
congregation, and, latterly, of the Soldiers' Children's Home. He has been a trustee of the 
church corporation since 1833, and a ruling elder ol the church since [836. His first 
profession of faith, both in baptism and communion, was made here in [uly, [831. Dr. lames 
W. Alexander was then the pastor, and in a letter of that date, he wrote: "Last Lord's I lay 
we were favored with the addition of eleven persons to our church, four of whom are active 
men." How well he fulfilled this forecast ol an active man in the subsequent forty-one years ! 
Alike in the material and spiritual affairs ol this congregation, his activity was without inter- 
mission, and, it not foremost in starting new plans, he was always among the most efficient 
and liberal in carrying them into effect. Though he might not originate or altogether approve, 
he was never behindhand in doing his part. It would be almost impossible lor one, even a 
pastor, to be more thoroughly identified with the existence of a church (in both senses n( the 
word, as a building and as a Christian society) than he was with this. Here he was found at 
all its services — Lord's Day and work clays. In every improvement or repair, in every 
financial arrangement, in every subscription or collection, in every enterprise outside or within 
these walls, for these forty years, at least, he has been consulted and applied to. He provided 
for the communion table, and took care of its vessels. Families loved to have him in the 
tender office of bearing their beloved dead to the grave. It was a strange thing il he were 
absent from any meeting of the session or trustees; and his brethren, in both those: bodies, 
would be almost willing to leave anything to his judgment or to his performance. He has 
been a personal friend, as well as colleague, of the successive pastors of his time. lbs house 
was one of the first to welcome the present one, and more than thirty-one years' intimacy has 
only confirmed the first impressions of his kindness, sympathy and support. 



i 9 4 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

In the Presbytery and Synod, he was known to all, and was relied on in the business by 
both clergy and laity. In church-work, as in more common charity, his hand was always 
amony the first to contribute;, not only in promptness, hut amount. He did not push himself 
forward into notice, hut he never held back when he could he of service. I le was not in the 
habit of putting as much as he could on others, and doing as little as possible himself. He 
was not afraid to undertake a disagreeable office, if it was his duty, because he might lose 
favor by it. I le did not conceal his opinions or varnish his words, lest he should impair his 
interests here and there. The earnestness ot his mind in whatever he undertook, his own 
thoroughness, in business, his quick perceptions ot what was best, and promptness in executing 
it, together with a nervous temperament, made him impatient of interruption or delay in others, 
and sometimes gave an abruptness or harshness to his manner which strangers might mis- 
interpret ; but those who knew how impartial he was in this respect, in his intercourse with his 
dearest friends, alike with others, arc well assured that there were none but the best feelings 
and motives under this outspoken decisiveness of a mind so full of important cares. His 
friend and companion in the bank for thirty years, publicly testified yesterday, that " the 
intercourse, personal and official, of all that time, was uninterrupted for a single moment by 
the slightest misunderstanding." A striking demonstration of the absence of sternness in his 
real spirit was afforded in his prayers. Idiosyncrasies may affect even a good man's devotions. 
A rough temper may not be able to repress rough tones, even when one is communicating 
with his Maker. But I am sure those who heard this elder, week after week, in this part of 
the ministrations of his sacred office, must often have noticed and felt how tender was the 
manner in which he poured out his soul before God — how his voice, as well as its spontaneous 
expressions, attested the childlike disposition ot his spirit. 

We may now judge whether so many ties can suddenly cease without creating an 
extended feeling of loss. Not one, but many, vacancies have been made by the stopping of 
that brain ami hand which were working in so many ways, and overworking in the occupation 
of his special business — working tor others — for the institution and the public — far beyond 
what was called for by any private gain of his own. 

It follows also that in proportion to the extent and importance of the consequences of 
the event, is the prominence of the moral impression that should be made by it. 

Then let me say to this concourse of persons, representing the many interests which will 
feel the absence of this busy, trusted, ever-ready workman, this vacancy has to be filled, ami 
to be filled by us. This means far more than choosing the new cashier, elder, manager, coun- 
selor. Difficult as that may lie, it is the least of the difficulty. It takes many to supply the 
place of one whose character and qualities have caused him to be sought in every direction, 
and for such diverse services. But it is that character — the value of it — the excellence of it — 
the trustworthiness of it — that gives us our lesson here. It is not the ability, the judgment, 
the success of the man of business, whether in bank or church, that is in our contemplation 



OF BIOGRAPHV. 195 

in this place. These qualities are sometimes found in connection with the most selfish and 
even debased motives. It is the moral character, which was the basis of the confidence given 
to him, and the source of what made him worthy of that confidence that is for our instruction. 
Who of us doubts that this man's record, not only that which his public accounts will furnish, 
but which the secrets of his heart could divulge, would lie as incontrovertible as that of the 
"old and gray headed " Officer of Israel, "behold, I have walked before you from my child- 
hood unto this day! behold, here I am ' witness against me before the Lord, whom have I 
defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind 
mine eyes therewith?" Who doubts whether he could safely have gone so far as St. Paul, 
and said, whether of the public treasury or of private trusts, whether under the color ol law. 
the customs of business or opportunity of office and power, " we have wronged no man : we 
have corrupted no man ; we have defrauded no man?'' Do we believe he had anything to 
hide — to watch as to his gains — lest the guilty secret should transpire and his dishonesty be 
exposed ? There was not a dollar of his money of which he was ashamed to tell how he got 
it. Even were he not immaculate, the lesson for us is just as good ; for it was the belie! that 
he was so that attracted every one's confidence, and this is the proof that integrity ol the 
heart is the only foundation of a good and trustworthy character. This is the class o! men 
from whom the vacancies ought to be supplied, and this is the; source of the qualifications 
that constitute the character. This is the science of morals which wet must adopt it we would 
stand fairly in the eyes of our fellow-men, and in the judgment of Him who looketh not only 
upon the outward appearance, and the spoken profession, l>ut upon the principles ol the soul, 
such a man was Thomas [ohnson Stryker. 




196 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 



. ^"^XlKRCL, HENRY LILLIR, a descendant in the eighth generation from John Pers. of 
R^^r Norwich, Norfolk count)-, England, who came to this country in 1637 and settled 

t^ in Watertown, Mass.; was born in Stoughton, Mass.. 23d August, 1S25. Ills 

lather, Col. [esse Pierce, was for manyyears a prominent and successful teacher in 
public and private schools in Norfolk county. He also took an active part in town affairs, 
served in the State militia, in all tin- grades, from ensign to colonel, represented his town dur- 
ing six terms ot the State Legislature, and was among the earliest promoters of the Liberty 
party, which subsequently became the FreeSoil party. Colonel Pierce married, in tSja, Eli/a 
S. Lillir, daughter ol Captain fohn Lillir, who served with distinction in the War of the Revo 
lution. Henry, the subject ot this sketch, received a good English education at the public 
schools in his native town, at the Academy in Milton, and also at the Academy and State 
Normal School, in Bridgewater. In 1X50 he entered the chocolate manufactory of Walter 
Baker & Co., in Dorchester, to which place the family had removed the previous year. Soon 
alter the death ot Mr. Maker, in (854, he took charge of the entire business, and from that 
time to the present has been the sole manager. lb- became interested in public affairs at a 
very early age; and, while still a schoolboy, he contributed articles on political questions for 
some ol the country papers. 1 lis sympathies at first were with the I )emocratic party, to which 
his father originally belonged, but he revolted against tin/ party policy on the slavery (pies 
tion. On the nomination of Van Buren by the Free Soil part)- in 1848, he joined with enthu- 
siasm in the new movement for equal rights ; and through good report and evil report he stood 
thenceforth by the Anti-slavery part)- — aiding it by his voice, his pen and his money — until 
the purpose for which it had been organized was triumphantly established. 

In [860 Mr. Pierce was elected to represent the townol Dorchester in the General Court. 
During his first term he was instrumental in getting a bill passed by both branches to change 
the existing laws so as to authorize the organization ol militia companies composed of colored 
men. But the measure was defeated at that time by the Governor's veto ; and it was not 
until tour years had passed that success attended the efforts of those who wished to have an 
obnoxious discrimination on account of race removed from the statute book. 

During the next session Mr. Pierce inaugurated the movement, in which he was'supported 
by a majority of the Mouse, for instructing the Massachusetts Senators, and recommending tin- 
State's Representatives in Congress to favor such a change in the National laws as would 
authorize the enlistment ol colored men into the United States army. On being re-elected 
for a third term, he was appointed Chairman of the Committee on Finance, and in that capacity 
reported and carried through the House two measures of great importance, namely, the 
act providing for the payment (A~ the State bonds in gold (this was after the Legal 'Pender Act 
had been passed by Congress), and the act placing a moderate tax on savings banks and 








/LUa> 



OF BIOGRAPHY. i,, 7 

Insurance companies. At the end of his third year Mr. Pierce withdrew from the I louse, but 
he was induced to serve again in [866, and his name appears prominently in the pre, eedings 
for that year. 

On the annexation of 1 Dorchester to the city of Boston, in 1869, he was chosen to represent 
that section of the city in the Hoard of Aldermen. After serving two years he declined a 
re-election. In December, 1872,11c was elected Mayor of Boston, receiving the support of 
the citizens who favored an economic, energetic and non partisan administration of municipal 
affairs. In order to improve the efficienc) of the government it was necessarj to make radical 
changes in the organization of some of the < xecutive departments ; and such changes he not 
only recommended but proceeded resolutely to carry out. Against very strong opposition he 
reorganized the health and lire departments, ami treed them from the personal and partisan 
influences to which they had long been subject. 

1 le also recommended the appointment oi a commission to make a complete revision oi 
the city charter, with a view to separate ami define the duties of the different departments, 
and thereby secure greater efficiency and responsibility in the management of the city business. 
The City Council having authorized him to appoint such a commission, he selected for that 
service a number ol the leading citizens ol Boston; and many of their recommendations, 
embodied in a report submitted in 1875, were subsequently adopted. 

In October, 1873, he received the Republican nomination for Representative in Congress 
from the Third Massachusetts District, to hll the vacancy in the Forty-third Congress 
occasioned by the death ol Hon. William Whiting. The success of his municipal adminis- 
tration is shown by the fact that the Democrats failed to nominate any candidate to oppose 
him, and his election was substantially unanimous. Having been lor main years on terms of 
personal friendship with Charles Sumner, and having a large acquaintance with the public 
men of the day, he was from the beginning ol his congressional service, in a position to exert 
a strong influence upon the councils ol the Government. Actuated by the same spirit which 
led Sumner, Andrew, and Wilson to favor a conciliatory policy towards the South in the 
legislation which followed the war, he threw his influence against the harsh and unconstitutional 
measures by which a portion of the leaders in the party to which he belonged sought to 
perpetuate their political ascendency Over the States lately in rebellion. lie was thus placed 
in the unpleasant position of being obliged to oppose many of the acts favored by President 
(.rant's Administration. Hut it was evident that his course was in accordance with the 
sentiments of the people of Massachusetts, from the fact that in the elections to the For ty- 
fourth Congress, which occurred in the- autumn of 1S74. he was re elected bya large majority, 
while, in six out of the ten other districts in the State, the regular Republican candidates were 
defeated for the first time since i860. 

Near the close of the second session of the Forty-third Congress (February, 1875), the 
Force Bill, so-called, giving the President extraordinary powers to interfere in the internal 



igi ENCYCLOP.liDIA 

affairs of the States lately in rebellion, and in his discretion to suspend the privileges of the writ 

n! habeas corpus, was introduced into the I louse, and an attempt made by the Administration 
leaders to force it through without giving sufficient opportunity for discussion. The Repub- 
licans had control of the House by a large majority, ami, as a political measure, intended, as 
man)- ol them avowed, to give their party an advantage in the presidential election to occur 
in the following year, they were substantially unanimous in its support. On the 27th of 
February, Mr. fierce made a speech in opposition to the bill, which attracted much attention, 
and was highly commended by the leading newspapers throughout the country. "Local self- 
government ami the equality of all men before the law, are," he said, "the cardinal principles 
of my political faith. By these principles I stand or fall. I resisted the Fugitive Slave Bill 
because it trampled upon the principles of civil liberty and tin- rights of human nature. The 
bill now under consideration is permeated with the spirit which gave life and vigor to that 
odious measure. Of the supporters of the Fugitive Slave Bill, the most conspicuous were 
Jefferson Davis and John C. Breckenridge ::: :|: * Some of the most blatant and preten- 
tious supporters of Davis and Breckenridge, in conventions and before the people, are here 
to-day the especial champions of this bill. * * 1 know Massachusetts, and I have spoken 

her sentiments here. She has always interposed a firm resistance to the approach of arbitrary 
power. She resisted unto blood the stamp act, writs of assistance and all the force bills which 
were enacted by Parliament to compel her submission to the British Crown. She will be true 
to her traditions and to her history, and will resist by all constitutional means every attempt, 
by whomsoever made, to impose similar measures upon any portion of the people of our 
common country." 

During the session of the Forty-fourth Congress Mr. Pierce was at the head of the 
Republican members of the Committee on Commerce. He made an elaborate report on the 
subject of relieving vessels engaged in the coasting trade from the unjust and discriminating 
legislation of some of the States with regard to pilotage fees, lie also made speeches on the 
proposition to amend the Constitution so as to limit the term of office of the President ; on 
reciprocity with Canada; on the distribution of the Geneva Award, and on counting the 
electoral vote of Louisiana. On the last-named question Mr. Pierce and Professor Seelye 
(the Representative of the Tenth Massachusetts District), stood alone among the Republicans 
in opposing the counting of the vote of Louisiana for either candidate, on the ground of fraud 
in making up the returns. The London Times published Mr. Pierce's speech at length and 
referred to it as a " very aim-" one. 

Some time previous to the elections for the Forty fifth Congress Mr. Pierce announced 
to the electors of the Third District, through the public press, his determination to retire from 
public life at the expiration of the term for which he then held office. This decision was made 
alter dtie deliberation and with the firm resolve of adhering to it. It was with extreme reluc- 
tance, therefore, that he consented in the autumn of 1X77 to allow his name to be used as a 



OF BIOGRAPHY. , 99 

Citizens' candidate for the office of Mayor of Boston. The call for his services was signed by 
over 2,500 tax-paying citizens, representing all classes and all political parties. The Admini 
tration then in power, and which sought to perpetuate its power, was charged with inefficiency 
and with extreme partisanship. The contest which followed was in main- respects the most 
remarkable in the annals of the city. The number of votes cast was largely in 1 of those 

at any previous election — Municipal, State, or National — and resulted in the election of Mr. 
Pierce by about 2,300 majority. 

In his inaugural address Mr. Pierce dwelt at some length upon the powers and purposes 
of municipal corporations, taking the ground that "they are created and exist for the public 
advantage, and not for the benefit of their officers or of particular individuals or class. 
He also considered some of the schemes which had been devised for improving our local 
governments, and denied the propriety or expediency of attempting to raise the standard by 
a limitation of suffrage, or by giving up to the State powers which, from time immemorial, 
have been exercised by the towns and cities. His clear and businessdike exposition of the 
true theory upon which local governments are formed and maintained in this country was 
highly commended by the representatives of all parties. Having satisfied himself, from a 
general survey of the field of labors, that the department of the government most in need of 
reform was that which had charge of the police, he entered upon the work of reorganizing it 
with that courage and persistency which have never yet failed to achieve their purpose. 
Against an opposition which was at times factious and violent, he carried through his plan of 
reorganization, by which this important department of the government was relieved as far as 
practicable from personal and political influences, and a more equitable and intelligent enforce- 
ment of the laws secured. 

At the conclusion of his term Mr. Pierce declined a reelection, and has since devoted 
his time mainly to the management of his large and constantly increasing business. During 
his absence in Europe in the summer of 1883 there was a very general demand from those 
opposed to the re-election of Gen. Butler for the use of his name as candidate for Governor ; 
and a large majority of the delegates elected to the Republican convention were undoubtedly 
in favor of his nomination. But, adhering to a determination formed sometime before, In- 
declined the use of his name and threw all his influence in favor of Mr. Robinson, who was 
triumphantly elected. 

Upon the nomination of Mr. Blaine for the presidency by the Republican convention in 
1SS4, Mr. Pierce felt constrained to repudiate the action of the party with which he had be< n 
identified since its organization. He took an active part as one ol the leaders in the inde 
pendent movement to promote the election of Mr. Cleveland. The President's message, in 
1SS7, pointing out the iniquitous provisions of the existing tariff, ami recommending the 
admission of raw materials free of duty, gave expression to views which Mr. Pierce had Ion- 
held, and he took a prominent and active part in support of Mr. Cleveland's reelection. IP 



200 



ENCYCLOPAEDIA 



was also one of the leaders in the movements which resulted in legislation to reform the Civil 
Service and the method of voting in Massachusetts. For some years past he has been presi- 
dent of the New England Tariff Reform League ; a member of the Massachusetts Reform 
Club, and of the Reform Club of New York. 

During the last twenty years Mr. Pierce has made many trips to Europe, partly for busi- 
ness and partly for recreation ; and has become familiar with the people and the institutions 
in almost every country on the Continent. 





^\f,Y C //ff//r>~ 



ar 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 2Q i 



'EBSTER, DANIEL, of Marshfield, Massachusetts. Horn in Salisbury, now 
Franklin, New Hampshire, January t8, 17S2. 1 lis father, Ebenezer Webster, 
was twice married, and by his second wife, nee Abigail Eastman, had children, of 
whom Daniel was the second son. 

The Webster family is of Anglo-Saxon blood, and is descended from Thomas Webster, 
a Scotchman, who settled at Hampton, New Hampshire, in 1636. 

Ebenezer Webster was horn in Kingston, New Hampshire, in 1739, and died in Salis- 
bury (Franklin), in 1806. Like many of the colonists, he served under General Amherst in 
the old French War, and rose to the rank of captain before its close. In 1761 he was one of 
the first settlers of the town of Salisbury, and in 1763 received the grant of an allotment of 
land on the upper course of the: Merrimac. There, in 1704, he built his log cabin, when then- 
was no other white man's habitation between it and the settlements at Montreal. He after- 
ward built a frame house not far from his log cabin, on the Elms farm. He was an innkeeper 
as well as farmer, and led the Salisbury militia to Cambridge, at the outbreak of the American 
Revolution. He bore a valiant part in the battles of White Plains and Bennington, was at 
West Point at the critical epoch of Benedict Arnold's treason, and shared in other campaigns 
until independence was achieved. He then retired, with the rank of colonel ot militia. Sub- 
sequently he was a member, at different times, of both branches of the State Legislature. 
From 1 791 until his death he was Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Hillsborough 
county, New Hampshire. 

The elementary scholastic education of Daniel Webster was partly received in the very 
indifferent schools of what was then the frontier, but the best part of it was derived from his 
father and mother. In the American homestead of 160 acres, that " quarter-section.g so well 
known to the land laws of the United States, said Senator Thomas I I. Bayard, ol I >elaware, 
"he learned from a pious mother's lips the letters of the language, that in later days, by 
speech and writing, he was destined to adorn. From that mother's teachings he imbibed in 
tender infancy those vital truths of religion and morality which give strength and permanence 
to the immortal part that survives. The profound principle of growth against difficulties and 
because of difficulties, of the reaction which is instigated 1>\ pressure, of the excellence that is 
developed in battling with the counter currents of life, was strikingly illustrated in this case." 

In 1796 he became a student in the Phillips Exeter Academy, where he gave manifold 
promise of future distinction, but could not command sufficient courage to deliver a decla 
mation. In February, 1797, he entered the family of the Rev. Samuel Wood, of Boscawen, 
and in the autumn of the same year matriculated at Dartmouth College. Thither he had 
expected to go from the day when, in early childhood, his father had told him, as they rode 
past the buildings, that he should there receive a collegiate education. Thegiftedand sensitive 

22 



202 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

boy wept as he heard the announcement. Long years afterward, "when standing in the 
Supreme Court of the United States, in the prime of his intellectual manhood, to plead the 
cause of Dartmouth, after he had vindicated her claims and carried her cause- in all the triumph 
of law and logic, before a wondering and captivated court, he paused for a moment, and once 
again mingled his tears with the name and memories of the 'little college, ' with the words : 
' But, sir, there are those who love it.' He was a true son of Dartmouth." 

While at college he contributed to his own support, and assisted his elder brother, 
Ezekiel, to prepare for college, by teaching school in winter. He was a general reader. 
History and English literature especially attracted him. He acquired such knowledge of the 
ancient languages as enabled him to read the Latin classics with pleasurable ease to the end 
of his days. His addresses before the college societies were marked by such rare oratorical 
qualities that some of them were published. He also superintended the editing of the Dart- 
mouth Gazelle. First in his class, he easily retained the leadership until his graduation in 1801. 

The rugged road he had hitherto traveled, and the pitiless storms to which he had bared 
his breast, had only braced his energies, and inspired the invincible determination to conquer 
all future difficulties. Immediately after graduation, he entered the office of Lawyer Thomas 
W. Thompson, his father's neighbor, and subsequently Congressman and United States 
Senator, in order to begin preparation for legal pursuits. But poverty obliged him to leave 
it for awhile. For the first nine months of the year 1802, he took charge of the Fryeburg 
Academy, in Maine, at an annual salary of $350. This he supplemented by copying deeds 
for a pittance. Two folio volumes, filled with his handwriting, remain to attest his industry. 
Returning to his preceptor, Mr. Thompson, he studied with him till February, 1804, when he 
went to Boston. There, by means of a friend, he procured a school for his brother Ezekiel, 
who, from the income it afforded, in turn shared his funds with Daniel, and enabled the latter 
to prosecute his studies under the direction of Christopher Gore, who was afterward the 
Governor of Massachusetts, and also United States Senator. Remaining with him — though 
with intermissions — from July, 1804, to March, .1805, he made "a good stride onward." He 
examined and reported every decision made, while there, in the Supreme Court of Massachu- 
setts and in the United States Circuit Court. He also cared for the school of Ezekiel while 
the latter was necessarily absent for graduation at Dartmouth. In the spring of 1805 he was 
admitted to the bar of the Boston Court of Common Pleas. 

Fairly launched on the sea of professional life, he had excellent prospects of profitable 
voyages. But few men, if any, have made more diligent preparations. None, certainly, have 
been more careful to be ready for every crisis, or prompt to seize every opportunity. Senator 
Bayard, in his Commemorative Oration, delivered at Dartmouth, June 28, 1882, said: — 

" The just renown of Mr. Webster as a jurisconsult and advocate was based upon a study 
of history and of the laws as painstaking and thorough as is recorded of any man of high rank 
in the profession, whose distinction is confined solely to excellence in that profession. His 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 203 

labor in the preparation of his cases was remarkable. No one could describe this better than 
he did himself, in 1806: 'Study is the grand requisite for a lawyer. Men may be horn poets, 
and leap from their cradles painters. Nature may have made them musicians, and (ailed on 
them to exercise, and not to acquire, ability. But law is artificial. It is a human science to 
be learned, not inspired. Let there be a genius for whom nature lias .lone as much as 
apparently to have left nothing for application, yet to make a lawyer application must do as 
much as if nature had clone nothing.' Of his painstaking habits of study, he himself also tells 
us: 'In addition to books on the common and municipal law, I read Valid for the third time, 
Ward's Laiv of Nations, Lord Bacon's Elements, Puffendorff's Latin History of England, 
Clifford's Juvenal, Boswell's Tour to the Hebrides, Moore's Travels, and many other miscella- 
neous things (Gibbon's Life and Posthumous Works, Paley's Natural Theology). But my 
main study was the common law, especially the parts in it which relate to special pleading. 
Whatever was in Viner, Bacon, or other books then usually studied, I paid my respects to. 
Among other things, I went through Saunders' Reports, the old folio edition, and abstracted 
and put into English out of Norman French the pleadings of all his reports.' Had he never 
entered Congress, his eminence as a criminal lawyer, as a pleader, as a common lawyer, and 
master of commercial law, would have made him great among the greatest in the profession. 
He encountered the greatest lawyers of his day, and yet it may justly be said that even at the 
bar and among such he seldom met his equal, and never his superior. While his shrewd n 
and quick wit at times surprised even his associates, there was not the slightest trace of the 
dry, sharp lawyer, seeking to gain his case by fine points and 'case hunting.' His arguments 
were underlaid by a wide knowledge of the history of law, and illuminated and elevated by 
sound ethics and philosophy." 

Mr. Webster "regarded the law as a science, and not as a trade — as a liberal profession, 
and not as a mere money-getting occupation." This remark was true of him from the day ol 
entrance upon professional duty. Before his admission to the bar he had been offered the 
clerkship of the Court of Common Pleas of Hillsborough county, N. It., the emoluments oi 
which amounted to $1,500 annually. That was a large sum at the time. 1 lis father, a mem- 
ber of the court, wished him to accept the post; but Mr. Core, with true prevision of the 
future, advised him to decline it. Promotion might have ended there, and the splendid repu- 
tation he afterward realized have never been attained, had he acted under the influence of 
purely pecuniar)- motives. 

Mr. Webster practised law for about twelve months at Boscawen, ami in 1806 was 
admitted to the Superior Court of New Hampshire, lie then established himsell at Ports- 
mouth, the capital of the State There he entered upon full and lucrative practise at once. 
Eminent counselors were his competitors ; distinguished lawyers from Massachusetts were 
also in attendance: but he, intellectually, was like Saul among his brethren — overtopping the 
whole. 






204 /:.Y ■ CYCLOPAEDIA 

Politically, Mr. Webster was a Federalist, as was also his father. Party spirit was strong 
and sometimes rampant. He advocated the principles of his party in public speeches and 
resolutions, but for some years abstained from more active participation in politics. The 
declaration of war with Great Britain in 1812 had long hern foreseen and deprecated by the 
Federalists. It brought to the forefront the best talent the country could furnish. Mr. 
Webster's high reputation commended him to the suffrages of his fellow-citizens, who, in 1S12. 
elected him to Congress. Taking his seat in the special session of May, 1813, he was placed 
in the Committee on Foreign Affairs. Relations with foreign powers, and provision for the 
greatly increased expenditure of the government, were the principal topics of discussion in 
the I louse. Mr. Webster at once assumed a leading part. On fune 10, 1813, he delivered 
his first speech in the House, on the Napoleonic repeal of the Berlin and Milan Decrees. 
Coming from one who was almost a complete stranger in Washington, its eloquence and 
[lower created great surprise both among tin- members and in the country at large He 
afterward advocated the increase of the navy, and the repeal of the embargo on trade with 
Great Britain, in an address that placed him among the foremost of influential debaters. His 
friendliness to all parties, on both sides of the blouse, won the regard of those who were 
politically opposed to him. 

Again elected to Congress in 1814, he opposed the bill for a new United States Bank that 
should not be obliged to redeem its notes in coin. His habit of completely mastering the 
history, principles and applications of any subject on which he undertook to speak was appar- 
ent in this oration. It exhibited exhaustive knowledge of the difficult subjects of banking, 
finance and currency. The bill was ultimately vetoed by President Madison. In the Four- 
teenth Congress he actively supported the charter of the Bank of the United States, which 
was passed by the House in April, 1816. He also introduced a resolution requiring all pay- 
ments to the treasury, after February 20, 181 7, to be made in specie or its equivalent. This 
resolution prevailed, and restored the depreciated currency of the country. 

After the close of the session of Congress in August, 1816, Mr. Webster decided on 
making Boston his permanent home. The reasons for this change of domicile were the con- 
flagration of his house, library, and all the fruits of his professional labor at Portsmouth, in 
December, 1813, and the limited scope for his remarkable powers that so small a place 
afforded. For some time he hesitated between Albany and Boston, "doubting, we are told, 
whether that city would give him the scope for professional occupation and a much-needed 
income, or whether Albany would not be the better place for both. By his decision, then 
made, the great Empire State lost, and the Old Bay State gained, the honor of enrolling 
Webster among her adopted sons. From 1816 to 1S22 he was, as much as Webster could be, 
in private life, sedulously devoted to his profession, naturally and without question walking 
into its foremost rank, until he stood confessedly at its very head." The best business oi New 
England and of the United States, adjudicated at Washington, came into his hands. Soon 



Of biography. 205 

after his settlement in Boston he was engaged in the celebrated Dartmouth College case. This 

litigation, in which he powerfully aided to establish the constitutional law applicable to all such 
cases, had its origin in the action of the New Hampshire Legislature, which, in 1816, enai 
laws altering the charter of the college, increasing tin; number of trustees, reorganizing the 
corporation, anil changing its title to Dartmouth University. The new authorities, created 
under these acts, assumed the charge of its affairs, and also its management. But the mem- 
bers of the old board, dissatisfied with the proceedings and doubting their legality, " brought 
an action against the treasurer of the new board for the record books, the original charter, 
the common seal, and other corporate property of the college. "The case," continues the 
American Cyclopa-dia, "turned upon the points whether the acts of the Legislature were 
binding upon the old corporation without their assent, and not repugnant to the Constitution 
ot the United States." The New Hampshire courts decided that the acts of the Legislature 
were constitutional and valid. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court of the United 
States. Mr. Webster appeared as one of the counsel for the plaintiffs. On March 10, 1818, 
he opened the case, and argued " that at common law, colleges under ordinary circumstan 
are private eleemosynary institutions, over which the State has no control, except for acts in 
violation of their charters, and that, within the meaning of the Constitution of the United 
States, the charter of such an institution is a contract which the Legislature of a State cannot 
annul." The decision of the court was pronounced by Chief Justice Marshall, at the term for 
1819, declaring the acts of the Legislature of New Hampshire unconstitutional, and reversing 
the decision of the court below. By this decision the law of the- land, in reference to col!' 
ate charters, was firmly fixed. This case established Mr. Webster's reputation at the Supreme 
Court of the United States, anil he was thenceforward retained in almost every considerable 
cause argued at Washington. Among these were included the gnat steamer monopoly case 
of Gibbons and < >gden, the Ogden and Saunders case, involving State insolvent laws, the 
Alabama bank, validity of Stephen Guard's will, Rhode Island charter, and the great India- 
rubber case, argued by him before the United States Circuit Court of New fersey in the last 
year of his lite. 

Mr. Webster's reputation as a criminal lawyer was unsurpassed. In the trial of Good- 
ridge at Newburyport, and in the famous case of Knapp at Salem, his resources and skill 
wre of a magnitude and character similar to those at his command in civil causes. All his 

O 

vast erudition, and the close application by which it had been acquired, proved to be of the 
utmost service to himself and his clients. 

In 1820, after the separation of Maine from Massachusetts, Mr. Webster was a member 
of the convention charged with the revision ><\ the Constitution of the latter State. < >aths 
of office, the basis of senatorial representation, and the independence ol the judiciary were 
the themes to which he chiefly devoted himself. On December 226 of the same year, he 
delivered his celebrated oration at Plymouth, on the anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrim 



2o6 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

Fathers. This alone would have enrolled him among the princes of American oratory. It 
was followed by other addresses of the same class. Among them were : one delivered when 
the corner-stone of Hunker Hill Monument was laid, in fune, i S 2 5 , and one at the completion 
of the structure, in June, 1843 ; tnc eulogy on Adams and fefferson, in 1826 ; his famous speech 
on the Greek Revolution, in December, 1823 ; and his discourse on laying the corner-stone of 
the Capitol extension, in 1851. 

Mr. Webster was again elected to Congress in 1822 by a very large majority. The 
tariff question was discussed at the following session, and he opposed too great an increase of 
protective duties. He was in favor of protecting domestic industry; but all domestic industry 
was not confined to manufactures. Agriculture, commerce, and navigation were all branches 
of the same domestic industry, and he did not favor such encouragement to particular manu- 
factures as would involve injustice to other branches of industry. 

His view of the balance of trade differed from that of the prohibitory protectionist. He 
maintained that the difference between the value of the imports and exports consisted of the 
profits of commerce and the earnings of navigation. It was clear that if the value of the com- 
modities imported in a given case did not exceed the value of the outward cargo with which they 
were purchased, the voyage was unprofitable. "As chairman of the Judiciary Committee, he 
reported and carried through the House a complete revision of the criminal law of the United 
States." In the second session of the Eighteenth Congress, in which the election of the Presi- 
dent of the United States devolved upon the House of Representatives, John Ouincy Adams 
was selected by that body. Mr. Webster, so long as he remained a member of the House, 
was the leader of the part)- friendly to the Administration. In 1824 he was again re-elected to 
the House. 

In 1827, there being a vacancy in the representation of Massachusetts in the Senate of 
the United States, Mr. Webster was elected to fill it, and by successive elections continued to 
fill that position until 1841. In the first session of the Twentieth Congress the principal topic 
of discussion was the revision of the tariff, with special reference to the protection of the 
woolen interest. Mr. Webster, always a moderate protectionist, "showed that a moderate 
protective system had now become the settled policy of the country, and that the capital 
invested in manufactures was far too considerable to be exposed to the caprices of the foreign 
markets, fraudulent invoices, and the competition of foreign labor working on starvation 
wages." Mr. Webster, judging from the tone of all his speeches, was a free-trader in 
principle, and a moderate protectionist from motives of policy. "No one," says Senator 
Bayard, "who reads the speeches of Mr. Webster, delivered in the House of Representatives 
in 1S16 and 1824, and his speech in Faneuil Hall, on October 2, 1820, can doubt that he 
believed and maintained that no objection ought ever to be made to taxes equally apportioned 
and imposed for the purpose of raising revenue necessary for the support ot the Government, 
but that taxes imposed on the' people for the benefit of any one class of men are equally 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 207 

inconsistent with the principles of our Constitution and with sound policy; and that lie did 
not believe that Congress possessed the power of turning the incident into the principal, and 
instead of leaving manufactures to the protection of such laws as should he passed with a 
primary view to revenue, of enacting laws with the avowed object of giving preference to 
particular manufactures, with an entire disregard to all considerations of revenue." Defending 
himself against the charge of inconsistency, in his second speech in the Senate, on Foote's 
resolution, in 1S32, he remarked: "I said then (1816, 1820 anil 1S24), and I say now. that. 
as an original question, the authority of Congress to exercise the revenue power, with direct 
reference to the protection of manufacturers, is of questionable authority — more questionable, 
in my judgment, than the power of internal improvements." Justice and equity to, all sections 
and classes of the American republic constitute the rule by which he practically held that all 
our tariff laws should be adjusted. 

The first session of the Twenty-first Congress was distinguished by the memorable debate 
on Foote's resolutions relative to the survey of the public lands. In the discussion the doctrine 
of John C. Calhoun, that an individual State has the right to nullify an Act of Congress, was 
made prominent. Mr. Webster spoke twice. His second address, on January 26 and 27, 
1830, is the most eloquent and famous of all his parliamentary efforts. The first speech was 
a reply to Mr. Hayne's accusation that New England had always adopted an unfriendly policy 
toward the Western States. The second was in reply to another more bitter and personallv 
offensive attack from the same individual, in which he emphatically reaffirmed the right of 
nullification. Mr. Webster's rejoinder was crushing. His keen sarcasm was so blended with 
genuine good humor and manly expostulation that it commanded the sympathies of his 
audience ; New England in general, and Massachusetts in particular, were vindicated with the 
utmost spirit and effect, and the doctrine of nullification, as held and expounded by the South 
Carolina school of politicians, was utterly overthrown. Quoting from the letter in which the 
framers of the Constitution submitted the results of their work to the country, he fully indorsed 
the sentiment that "that which appears to us the greatest interest of every true American (is) 
the consolidation of our Union, in which is involved our prosperity, liberty, safety, perhaps 
our national existence." Speaking of the Constitution and Government, he said : — 

"It is the people's Constitution, the people's Government, made for the people, made by 
the people, and answerable to the people. The people n\ the United States have declared 
that this Constitution shall be the supreme law. That Slates are sovereign solar as their 
sovereignty is not affected by this supreme law. But the State Legislature, as political bodies. 
however sovereign, are yet not sovereign over the people. So far as the people have given 
power to the General Government, so far the grant is good ; and the Government holds of 
the people, and not of the State Governments. The General Government ami the State 
Governments derive their authority from the same source. Neither can, in relation to the 
other, be called primary; though one is definite and restricted, and the other is general and 









208 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

residuary. The National Government possesses those powers conferred on it by the people; 

the rest belongs to the States and the people." 

All questions of constitutional power are referable to the final decision of the Supreme 
Court. The Senate Chamber was densely crowded while Mr. Webster was speaking. 
A greater, more brilliant, or more decisive parliamentary victory than his has rarely, it" ever, 
been won. Mr Hayne was utterly unable to make a satisfactory reply. The doctrine of 
nullification by State authority had received its death-blow. 

Daniel Webster "lived ami died with a love for his whole country that never knew State 
lines, nor paused upon the imaginary boundaries of sections." He was an unequalled advocate 
ot national union. Mis personal influence thereon has been well and forcibly stated by 
Senator T. 11. Bayard, in the words: — 

"The influence of Mr. Webster's counsels, and the moral forces which he set in motion 
all over the country, are easily to be traced in the history of his times, and exist to-dav. It 
cannot well be doubted that the settlement of many a question as to extent of the constitutional 
powers ot the Government, to which his arguments in the Senate and forum so powerfully 
contributed, maintained its peaceful ascendency, and met the general acceptation of his country- 
men. The speeches upon Foote's resolution in [832, arrayed tin- opinion of the entire North, 
and a majority ot the people everywhere, against the doctrine of nullification, and consequent 
disruption ot tin- Union under that claim ot alleged right. His counsels of amity, his never- 
tailing opposition to sectional animosity, his constant encouragement to mutual and kindly 
trust and brotherhood between the distant populations, combined wi h his warnings of the 
dangers of dissolution, and the impossibility of its peaceful accomplishment, did, as 1 believe, 
and as 1 claim the- sequel has proven, more than any other single force, postpone, until nearly 
a generation after his death, the dreadful collision, which in 1832, he so earnestly prayed his 
eyes might never witness; and when in the providence of God the blow fell, it was to the 
spirit ot union and nationality which he had so steadily inculcated, that we owe the establish- 
ment in peace ol the admitted power of our government over these United States anil people." 

In all tin- years succeeding that which witnessed the conclusive debate on the nullification 
heresy, until the inauguration of General Harrison as President, in 1 841, Mr. Webster was 
one of the foremost debaters in the National Senate. His voice was heard and his power 
confessed in the disruption of the combinations which had elevated General Jackson to the 
chief magistracy; in the rejection of Martin Van Buren's name as Minister to England; in 
the discussions on the bill to re-charter the United States Bank, which was vetoed by President 
Jackson; on the Force bill in Congress; on the Compromise Tariff of Mr. Clay; on the 
removal ot the public deposits from the bank of the United States, and their distribution 
among the local banks; on the resolution of the Senate disapproving of that measure, and the 
message of the President protesting against the resolution ; on the expunging resolution, the 
election ot Van Buren to the presidency, the financial crisis of 1 S 3 7 and the extra session of 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 209 

Congress necessitated by it, the new government plan of finance, and others. His argument 
on the "sub-treasury" system of the Administration was the most thoroughly wrought out 
and effective of all his speeches on the currency : — 

"Sir, the very man of all others who has the deepest interest in a sound currency, and who 
suffers most by mischievous legislation in money matters, is the man who earns his daily bread by 
his daib toil. A depreciated currency, sudden changes of prices, paper money — falling betwei n 
morning and noon, and falling still lower between noon and night — these things constitute 
the very harvest time of speculators, and of the whole race of those who are at once crafty 
and idle; and of that other race, too, the Catilines of all times, marked so as to be known 
forever by one stroke of the historian's pen — those greedy of other men's property, and 
prodigal of their own. :): * * I would say to every owner of every quarter-section of land 
in the West ; I would say to every man in the East who follows his own plough, and to every 
mechanic, artisan and laborer in every city in the country — I would say to every man every- 
where, who wishes by honest means to gain an honest living, ' beware of wolves in sheep's 
clothing.' Whoever attempts, under whatever popular cry, to shake the stability of the public 
currency, bring on distress in money matters, and drive the country into the use of paper 
money, stabs your interest and your happiness to the he-art." 

Mr. Webster thoroughly comprehended the currency question, and also that of credit, 
with its uses and necessities. He also truly appreciated the "jealousy with which every sug- 
gestion of dishonor, every tampering with the strict terms of public obligation, should In- 
regarded." Repudiation, either personal or corporate, was to him abhorrent. 

Mr. Webster crossed the- Atlantic in the spring of [839, and made a rapid tour in 
England, Scotland and France. Returning in the fall, he lent most efficient aid in the presi 
dential canvass which resulted in the election of General Harrison. I lis own name had been 
brought forward as that ot the candidate for the vice-presidency, but had been withdrawn in 
deference to the custom of not taking both candidates for the highest offices in the nation 
from the same section of the country. This custom would doubtless, in the present 
instance, have been more honored in the breach than in the observance, but the great states 
man submitted to it with the best possible grace, and advocated the election oi Mr. Tyler. 
After the election, General Harrison offered to Mr. Webster the choice ol place, in his 
Cabinet. 1 le decided, in conformity with his own inclinations and with the wishes ol judicious 
friends, to accept that of the Secretary of State. General I tarrison s<m.u died. 1 yler a< c vkVk\ 
to the presidency, the Administration ceased to be harmonious, and its compontents were 
eventually changed. Grave differences with England threatened the peace ot both countries. 
The long controversy about the Northeastern Boundary kept them on tin- perpetual verge ol 
rupture ; the Canadian troubles and the affair of the " Caroline: " and M< L< od, the detention 
and search of American vessels by British men-of-war on the African coast, wen- all seething 
elements of discord that might at any time issue- in shattering explosion. Providentially, a 

*3 



2io ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

new English Administration came into power in August, 1841, and the Governments <>! both 
countries sincerely addressed themselves to the task of bringing about an equitable settlement 
nl all disputes To Lord Ashburton, the British Envoy at Washington, and to Daniel 
Webster, must be accorded the praise of an honorable and lasting adjustment. Mr. Webster 
resigned the Secretariat in the spring of 1843. He had n,)t sympathized with the President's 
1 hange of policy, although he had retained that eminent official's confidence. 1 le remained in 
office for the same reason that he had entered upon it — the ardent desire to serve his country. 

Twenty years had now been unselfishly devoted to the public service. Private affairs 
imperatively demanded attention. Professional duties profitably engrossed his time and 
energies. But it was morally impossible tor him to keep outside the sphere ot active politics. 
In 1844 he supported the candidacy of Henry Clay for the presidency. Texas was then 
knocking for admission at the door of the Union. James K. Polk proved to be the popular 
choice for the chief magistracy. Slavery was worming its way upward to national supremacy, 
and intended to use Texas in gaining permanent ascendency. In December, 1N45, at the 
first session of the Twenty-ninth Congress, Mr. Webster took his seat in the United States 
Senate, as the successor ot Mr. Choate. He opposed the annexation ot Texas as unconsti- 
tutional, and had no original sympathies with the war with Mexico, but, inasmuch as the conflict 
had actually begun, did not deem it his duty to withhold the necessary supplies for the suste- 
nance and reinforcement of the American armies in the field. Edward, his second son, 
obtained the commission of major in General Scott's army, and died in the City of Mexico. Mr. 
Webster, through private channels ot influence in England, contributed materially to the 
adjustment of the Oregon Boundary dispute. In [847 he visited several ot the Southern 
States, and was warmly received at Charleston, Columbia, Augusta, and Savannah. Threat- 
ened with illness in the latter city, he was obliged to relinquish the further prosecution of his 
tour. The close of the year saw the victorious termination ot the Mexican War, and with it 
the beginning of a multitude ot evils that would eventually help to deluge the country with 
blood and tears. This catastrophe he foresaw, and he did what he could to avert it by voting 
against the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which brought so large an accession of territory to 
the republic in 1 848. 

The martial reputation acquired by General Zachary 'Taylor overshadowed the real glory 
of Mr. Webster's merit and public services, and procured him the Whig nomination for the 
presidency. He was elected, anil Webster and his friends gave his Administration a cordial 
support. 'The recent territorial acquisitions had imparted fresh strength and venom to slavery. 
Disappointed by failure to grasp California, which was asking tor admission to the Union as a 
free State, it sought compensation in the organization of New Mexico as a Territory, ami 
demanded a more stringent law for the extradition of fugitive slaves. Excitement in Congress, 
and in the country at large, rose to a critical height, and portended disaster and woe. Com- 
promise measures were adopted by Congress, ami the irrepressible conflict was thereby 



OF B/OGRA /'//). 21 i 

postponed for a while. In the debates on these measures, Mr. Webster delivered his memor 
able speech of the ;th of March, 1850, in which he gave up the VVilmot Proviso and justified 
the Fugitive Slave Law. Intense love of country, and desire lo conciliate the jarring sections, 
together with clear and shuddering perceptions of the horror of civil war, prompted him to 
make this unavailing concession. 

About midsummer of 1S50 President Taylor died. Vice-President Fillmore succeeded 
to the vacant chair, and, in reorganizing the Cabinet, called Mr. Webster to the Department ol 
State. The times were full of unrest and portentous of startling changes. The new Se< 
tary's time and splendid abilities were fully occupied. Filibusters made raids upon Cuba ; the 
execution of the Fugitive Slave Law was successfully resisted in different parts of the coun- 
try ; Kossuth and his Hungarian compatriots were enthusiastically received in the United 
States ; grave apprehensions of collision with British cruisers on the fishing-grounds were 
apprehended ; the " Crescent City " affair at Havana added another difficulty to the main 
already existent ; and misunderstandings with Peru about the Lobos Islands sprung up. Expe 
ditions were sent to Japan, a tripartite guaranty of Cuba was proposed, a reciprocity treaty 
relative to the Canadian Provinces was negotiated, and the affairs of Central America claimed 
the attention of President Fillmore's Administration, while Mr. Webster continued to be its 
premier. On July 4, 1851, he delivered his last public address at the laying of the corner 
stone of the Capitol extension; and in January, 1852, made his last great forensic effort in 
arguing the India-rubber patent case at Trenton, N. J. The end was drawing near. 

In the spring of 1852 the National Whig Convention assembled at Baltimore to nominate 
a candidate for the presidency. Not merit, not ability, not public service, but availability, is 
the one quality sought by such assemblages. General Scott was held to possess this in higher 
degree than Secretarj Webster, and therefore was made the standard bearer who led a great 
and historic political party to defeat. Whether Mr. Webster could have rendered it the 
service his marvelous talents and resources would have led its members to expect, is more 
than doubtful, from the fact that he was seriously injured by being thrown from his carriage, 
early in the month of May. near his farm at Marshfield. In June he returned to Washington, 
but was soon obliged to seek a cooler climate and the repose of home. In August he made 
another short visit to Washington. The last few months ol his life were spent at Marshfield. 
The matter of the American fisheries off the coast of the British Provinces was the last item 
of public business that occupied much of his attention. Its recent peaceful settlement l>y tin- 
method of arbitration, of which he himself was an eloquent advocate, is really an impressive 
tribute to the great patriot's memory. 

Chronic complaints gained fast upon him after his final return from Washington. Unable 
to discharge his duties with punctilious exactitude, he tendered his resignation, which President 
Fillmore politely declined to accept. Death then released him from further duty. Vast 
numbers of people from Marshfield and tin- neighboring tow us, from Boston and other portions 



212 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

of Massachusetts, and deputations from New York, Albany, and Philadelphia, attended his 
funeral. The press and the pulpit vied in doing honor to his memory. Sorrow was universal ; 
for a great man in our national Israel had fallen, and his wonderfully eloquent voice was 
stilled forever. 

Daniel Webster was a member of the Orthodox Congregational Church, lie is reported 
to have said that his greatest thought was that of personal responsibility to God. The Rev. 
Mr. Putnam, his pastor, said that he " was one of the most faithful parishioners and consistent 
Christians in his llock, always noiseless, firm, kind, on the side of truth and order, and ready 
to aid a good work." He related this anecdote of him: On Mr. Webster's return from 
pleading a cause in a town where there was no preaching, he called on Mr. Putnam and told 
him he thought the gospel ought to be preached there. "You have enough to do at home, 
1 know," said Mr. Webster; "but if at any time you can go and preach to that people, my 
horse and chaise art- at your service, and any expense you may incur I will gladly defray." 
Such incidents show the current of his heart. 

Mr. Webster was an intelligent, stable, outspoken Christian. His grand utterances in 
his argument on the Girard will case will never be forgotten. He declared that: — 

"There is nothing that we look for with more certainty than the general principle; that 
Christianity is part ot the law of the land. This was the case among the Puritans of New 
England, the Episcopalians of the Southern States, the Pennsylvania Quakers, the Baptists, 
the mass of the followers of Whitfield and Wesley, and the Presbyterians; all brought and 
all adopted this great truth, and all have sustained it. And where there is any religious sen- 
timent amongst men at all, this sentiment incorporates itself with the laws. Everything 
declares it. The massive cathedral for the Catholic ; the Episcopalian church, with its lofty 
spire pointing heavenward; the plain temple of the Quaker ; the log church of the hardy 
pioneer of the wilderness ; the mementos and memorials around and about us ; the conse- 
crated graveyards, their tombstones and epitaphs, their silent vaults, their mouldering contents, 
— all attest it. The dead prove it as well as the living. The generations that arc gone before 
speak to it, ami pronounce it from the tomb. We feel it. All, all proclaim that Christianity, 
— general, tolerant Christianity ; Christianity independent of sects and parties ; that Christian- 
ity to which the sword and fagot are unknown, — general, tolerant Christianity, is the law of 
the land." 

The Christianity Mr. Webster professed he also embodied and illustrated by his life. His 
classmate, Bingham, wrote of him as a student at college: "He had the highest sense of 
honor and integrity." Calhoun, his great political antagonist, at the close of his life, remarked, 
thato! all the leading men ol the day, there was not one whose political course had been more 
strongly marked by a strict regard to truth and honor than Mr. Webster's. To the Rev. 
Mr. Winslow Mr. Webster wrote a characteristic letter on the 29th of June, 1S50, in which hi' 
says: "What is to come ol the present commotions in men's minds I cannot foresee ; but my 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 

own convictions of duty arc fixed and strong, and I shall continue to follow those convictions 
without faltering. Nil time, nisi malfacere" 

His great merits might be and wen- overlooked, his legitimate aspirations might fail of 
accomplishment, but nothing could rob the pious and principled patriot of the perennial joys 
which well up from the consciousness of rectitude. General Alexander, of the Engineer 
Corps, relates an anecdote illustrative of his buoyancy under disappointment, as follows: ( >n 
the evening of the day of Scott's nomination at Baltimore, some members of the Tennessee 
delegation, after arriving in Washington, proposed a visit to Webster's house. The delega 
tion, with a number of other persons, halting under Webster's window, tried to "call him out." 
At last he appeared, and said : "Gentlemen, I had retired, as it has always been my custom, 
early ; but I shall rise in the morningwith the lark, and, although I cannot rival the jocund bird 
in song, yet he will not spring from the dew on the daisy to greet the purpling in the easl 
with more joy than I shall. Good-night, gentlemen !" 

Much has been said ami written about Mr. Webster's use of intoxicating liquors, b) 
writers who never had any personal acquaintance: with him. These scandalous effusions of 
political malignity have been n peated with coolness and effrontery in the face of indignant 
denials by friends and associates of the great statesman, lie did moderately use wines and 
other liquors, but not to the extent of drunkenness. The fable of his inebriety at Rochester, 
Xew York, and ot the ridiculous speech he delivered in consequence, has been and is emph; 
cally denied by prominent gentlemen there present, and particularly by the chairman of the 
public meeting. And yet it is occasionally recited by philosophic weaklings who think therebj 
" to point a moral and adorn a tale." 

Adamic or natural perfection is not the attribute of the best and noblest of the human 
race. The most vulnerable point in Mr. Webster's character was his generosity ami 
extravagance in money matters. But even this fault was extenuated by the magnitude of 
his professional earnings, by his liberal hospitality, and by the expensive management of 
large estates. He was an enthusiastic disciple of "gentle" Isaac Walton, and was no less 
expert with the gun than with the rod. His happiest days were passed upon his farms. 
He understood theoretical and practical agriculture, was a successful but not an economical 
farmer, and felt great pride in his fine stock and large crops. Pecuniary embarrassment 
resulted from delect of financial skill Partisan rancor did not hesitate to accuse him of 
corrupt practices. These accusations were pro\cn to be unqualifiedly false. Cons, ience and 
reputation were alike clean and spotless in this regard. Nor did any man rejoice more 
unfeignedly than he when freed from the trammels of debt. His embarrassments arose ! 
from the fact of his defective fiscal ability than from the insufficiency of his income. Senator 
T. H. Bayard affirms that "during the period of his congressional services he never received 
as much pay as is now given by law to the clerks of congressional commits Mr. Websb 

comparative impecuniosity is one of the penalties of public service, "Would it not be equall) 



2i 4 l-.X CYCLOPAEDIA 

just " inquires Mr. Bayard, "to censure a soldier, blinded and crippled on the field of battle 
in defense of his country, for his want of eyesight and activity, as to blame a patriot like 
Webster for his want of means to meet these obvious, ordinary, and proportionate expenses 
ol his high official station, and because he had turned his back upon private gain and pursued 
only public duty ?" 

Mr. Webster's love for his children and grandchildren was strong and magnetic. "I have 
been deeply interested," wrote Hubbard Winslow, one of his intimate friends, "when at his 
house, to see with what affection his grandchildren clung around his neck and imprinted their 
impassioned kisses on his majestic face. It was pleasing to see those lips which uttered a 
nation's wisdom, and on which thousands of the learned and great of the land had hung with 
rapture, welcoming and returning the loving kisses of the little child." A letter, dated March 
6, [848, to his grandson Daniel, is a model in its union of affection, sense, and moral influence. 
"Have but one rule," he writes from amidst the political turmoil at Washington, "and let 
that be always to act right, and fear nothing but to do wrong." "Always speak the truth," 
he had written in a style of beautiful simplicity to the same child, — five years old, — on the 
ioth of February, 1S45. 

His relations to his neighbors were of the most cordial and pleasant description. A 
friend who was riding with him in his carriage at Marshheld, near the close of his life, states 
that they met a plain-looking neighbor, who had been fishing, with basket on arm and pole 
on shoulder. " Mr. Webster halted ami called to him. He came up, and Mr. Webster put 
out his hand to salute him. 'My hand is not fit to be touched,' said the fishermen. He had 
been dressing fish, and his hand was unwashed. 'Never mind,' said Mr. Webster, '1 have 
dressed many a fish.' And he shook his hand as heartily as though it had been the hand of 
the President. 'Well, what luck?' said Mr. Webster. ' Poor,' was the reply; 'I have done 
but little.' 'I am sorry,' was the answer, 'but you have this to comfort you : the less taken 
the more is left ; the wheel of fortune is up ami down, and poor luck today promises better 
to-morrow.' I said to the man, 'you must be greatly favored to have so good a fishermen as 
Mr. Webster among you, to assist and encourage you.' The man looked earnestly at me 
and said : ' We all love Mr. Webster, sir.' Mr. Webster turned his great eyes upon me and 
said : 'I have good neighbors, kind neighbors, sir. 1 have every reason to love them. 1 The 
tones ol" the voice of each as they spoke, combined with their moistened eyes, to assure me 
that what was said came from the heart, that the greatest man of the nation and the humble 
fisherman loved each other as brethren. This is what I call true greatness of soul." 

Mr. Webster must ever rank as one of the greatest of American patriots. He had no 
interests, wishes or ambitions separate from the highest welfare of his country. The preser- 
vation of the Union was always a paramount object with him. 1 !<■ made the Union the key- 
note of his patriotism. I lis much-criticised speech on the 7th of March, 1S50, opened with 
the sentence: "I speak to da)' for the preservation of the Union.'' That speech needs to be 



Oh BIOGRAPHY. 215 

judged in the light ol the day which gave it birth ; in view of the temper, the spirit, the moral 
sense, the condition, the knowledge of that day respecting slavery. Even in the throes of civil 
war that followed less than eleven years afterward, Abraham Lincoln did not dare to present 
slavery as the real, but not the leading, issue before the nation. "It was the Union first, 
Union last, Union altogether, in proclamation and in speech." Not until popular sentiment 
was fully ripe were the fetters of slavery verbally broken by the Emancipation Proclamation 
of the martyr president. Daniel Webster's Union sentiments were materialized in the bayonets 
ot 1861-65. I' 1 tne memorable words of Choate : " He gave that marvelous brain, that large 
heart and that glorious life to our country, our whole country, our united country." 

Not less a humanitarian than a patriotic statesmen, his entire public career was an 
illustration of one of his statements in a heated debate at Washington: "I war with principles, 
not with men." On his deathbed, at the close of an ascription ending with " Peace on earth, 
goodwill towards men," he clasped his hands, saying, with great emphasis, "That is the 
happiness — the essence — good-will towards men." His love of mankind was one of the great 
motors of his intense study of diplomatic measures for the preservation of peace and the 
salvation of human life. Prior to his sailing- for Europe in 1839, a gentleman expressed his 
earnest desire that Mr. Webster might be able to adjust the difficulties growing out of the 
Northeastern Boundary question. Following that gentleman (Mr. Winslow) into the hall, 
Mr. Webster said: "I feel most deeply the importance of this subject. I feel that these two 
Christian nations in the eves of the world cannot afford to be, must not be, engaged in war. 
1 promise you to do all in my power to prevent it; ami, hoping to have your prayers and 
the prayers of all good people on this behalf, 1 will engage to report to you progress on 
my return." 

Mr. Webster's colossal greatness was one reason why In; never received nomination and 
election to the presidency of the United States. In presence of a genius at once so creative 
and conservative, the jealousies and envyings of smaller minds were enkindled, their petty 
animosities were communicated to the members of their personal following, and all conspired 
to prevent his elevation to the chief magistracy. But not the less real and beneficent has been 
his intluence upon the people he loved so well, and to whom he rendered such distinguished 
service. Durable as Plymouth Rock is the impress of Daniel Webster's greatness ami 
patriotis n upon the character and future of the American republic. 

Mr. Webster died at Marshfield, Mass., October 24. 1S52. His decease caused profound 
sensation throughout all the land. Words could scarcely exaggerate the popular emotion. 
The fathers had cherished intense reverence tor him, and the sons felt like crying out. as did 
the Hebrew youth on Elijah's translation, "My lather! my lather!" 

Mr. Webster's biography has been written by G Hcknor Curtis, and published in 

two volumes. C. W. March has also attempted his portraiture in a work entitled Panic! 
Webster and his Contemporaries. The best published collection of his writings is that, in si\ 






2i6 ENCYCLOPAEDIA 

volumes, by Edward Everett, and entitled The Speeches, Forensic Arguments, and Diplomatic 
Papers of Daniel Webster, with a Notice of his Life and Writings. These volumes should be 
accompanied by the Private Correspondence of Daniel Webster, edited by his son, Fletcher 
Webster. Of this correspondence the London Critic says: — 

"Simple and straightforward, these letters are models of a homely business style. They 
term with illustrations of earl)- struggles, ol party tactics, of domestic cares, and public 
responsibilities, with graphic touches of character, and with sidelong glimpses into American 
manners and institutions." 

But it is as an orator that I >aniel Webster will be chiefly remembered by posterity. His 
pre eminence as one of our prose writers is acknowledged in all sections of the country ; but 
his tame as an eloquent speaker rises above his renown as an author. " He was also a mag- 
nificent specimen of physical manhood ; his mere presence in an assembly was eloquence ; 
ami when he spoke, voice and gesture added immensely to the effect of his majestic port and 
beai ing. 

Fox said of Lord Chancellor Thurlow that he must he an impostor, for no man could he as 
wise as he looked. Webster was wiser in look than even Thurlow. His celebrated speech, 
in reply to Hayne, delivered in 1830, discussed the very foundations of the government. 
"In all the resources of the orator — statement, reasoning, wit, humor, imagination, passion — 
this speech has, like one ot the masterpieces of Burke, acquired reputation as a literary work, 
as will as by its lucid exposition of constitutional law." His reply to Calhoun, designated 
" The Constitution not a Compact between Sovereign States," was his greatest intellectual 
effort in the sphere of pure argumentation, and won as great a victory as his triumphant 
response to 1 layne. 

"In addition to Webster's extraordinary power of lucid statement, on which he based the 
successive steps and wide sweep of his argumentation, he was master of an eloquence 
unrivalled of its kind, because it represented the kindling into unit)' of all the faculties and 
emotions of a strong, deep and broad individual nature. Generally, understanding was his 
predominant quality ; in statement anil argument he seemed so be specially desirous to unite 
thought with tacts ; he distrusted all rhetoric which disturbed the relations of thing's ; but in 
the heat of controversy he occasional!)' mounted to the real elevation of his character, and 
threw otl flashes and sparks of impassioned imagination, which had the electric, the smiting 
effect of a completely roused nature. It is curious that he never exhibited the higher quali- 
ties ol imagination in his speeches until th< suppressed power flamed unexpectedly out after 
all his other faculties had been thoroughly kindled, ami then it came with formidable effect." 
— (Edwin 1'. Whipple.) 

Mr. \\ ebster's own estimate of the relative importance of his political speeches is 

expressed in his letters to Edward Everett, in 1851 : " My speech in reply to Mr. Hayne 

must he regarded as No. 1 among my political efforts. * * My speech of the 



OF BIOGRAPHY. 2lJ 

7th of March, 1850, is probably the most important effort of my life, and as likely as any other 
to be often referred to." "I admire your style of address," wrote Chancellor Kent to I >aniel 
Webster, in 1845 ; "it is stringent and terse, simple and strong. It is the severe simplicitj 
and strength of Demosthenes, and not the art and elegance and copia verborum of Cicero." 
"The best speeches of Webster," wrote Prof. Francis Lieber, "are anion- the very best that 
I am accpiainted with in the whole range of oratory, ancient or modern. The) have always 
appeared to me to belong to that simple and manly class which may be properly headed by the 
name of Demosthenes. Webster's speeches sometimes bring before my mind the image ol 
Cyclopean walls — stone upon stone, compact, firm, and grand. To test Webster's oratory, 
which has ever been very attractive to me, I read a portion of my favorite speeches of 1 )emos- 
thenes ; and then read — always aloud — parts of Webster, then returned to the Athenian, and 
Webster stood the test. I have done it several times." 

Among all the historic names, synonymous with talent, genius, erudition, eloquence, 
excellence, patriotism, none stands higher or shines brighter in the scroll of fame than that ol 
Daniel Webster. 

Mr. Webster was first married to Grace Fletcher, of Hopkinton, New Hampshire, early 
in life. Four children, named Charles, Julia, Edward and Fletcher, were- the issue of this 
union. The last only survived him. His second son, Major Edward Webster (as before 
stated), was in General Scott's army, and died in the City of Mexico. Fletcher Webster, 
Colonel of the Twelfth Massachusetts Volunteers, was killed in the second battle of bull Run, 
August 29, 1862. Mr. Webster's first wife died in January, 1S28. In December, 1829, he 
married Caroline Bayard Leroy, tin- daughter of an eminent New York merchant, who 
survived him. 




24 



CONTENTS 



PAGE. 

Abell, Arunah Shepherdson 173 

Ai.i.en, Elisha H. t 145 

Bedle, Joseph Dorsett 129 

Bradley, Joseph P., 54 

Cannon, Henry W., 141 

Depew, Chauncey M., 45 

Dickerson, Mahlon 178 

Dickekmix, Philemon, 181 

Dodd, Ahzi, [69 

Elmek, L. Q. C 

Evi [NG, Ciiaki.es 32 

Frelinghuysen, Frederick T 7 

Gray, I [orace 82 

Green, Henry W. 132 

Hubbard, John 61 

Keasbey, Anthony Q 182 

Kent, Edward • 5 



PAGE. 

McCullough, John Griffith, 15s 

Nixon, John T 134 

1'am oast, William II., 112 

Park, Trenor W 108 

Pierce, Henry Lillir, [96 

Potts, Frederic A., 1S5 

Runyon, 'I'm odore 78 

Simmons, Joseph Edward 120 

Sprague, Nathan Ii-knik 162 

Stryker, Thomas Johnson 192 

Si 'i rHARD, SAMI II I. , 8.) 

Vri iom, Peter 1) 

Wei;- I IK, 1 ) VNIEI 

Whei 11 1 \, Edward W 116 

Williams, Rei 11 58 

Woolsey, Theodore Dwight, 1 ■; 



OCT 5 " 1950 



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